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Published online 1 April 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.715
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Laughter brings out a red nose
Clown make-up may have a foundation in biology.
New research has revealed that the red nose and face-painting traditionally associated with clowns may have its origins in science.
Psychologist Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom used highly sensitive infrared imagers to observe people as they laughed at jokes and video clips.
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it's so funny. nobody will think that clowns may have its origins in science.
This makes perfect sense. You can feel your face heat up when you laugh, so it's not a huge stretch of imagination to think that early clowns tried to emulate this. I'm a clown historian and I am completely behind this theory as an explanation for the Auguste clown style. I would like to see more research done on this, for example is the Pierrot pale-faced style related to cooling of the face when we're sad, or a cooling effect from drying tears?
It's also thought that the large shoes of clowns evolved because of sexual selection. They act as an honest indicator of male quality for only the fittest clowns are able to successfully forage and evade predators while encumbered by their ludicrous footwear.
Nice try for an April Fool's joke! 'Journal of Jest'? King ain't no scientist, that's for sure. :) Nice try, Wiseman!
Thank your for your funny research!And I appreciate it so much!But a problem has also been found after reading this article.I am afraid of laughing from now on!Ha~for joking!
Lori Floap= April Fool
Congratulations to those who spotted the joke... in time for mid-day on America's east coast, we now confess that this is an April Fool's day joke. Thanks to Richard Wiseman for suggesting the idea and writing the piece. Lori Floap and Pierrot Auguste, along with the 'keywords' on this story, were meant to be a bit of a give-away :) Your editor, Nicola Jones.
so it was a treat and another reson to laugh like a cloun. Any ways research into the humor part should be taken more seriously, and its consequences which might benifit the society be better publicised