Humour

‘There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.’

 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol 

Humour is looking at the funny side of things.  Sometimes it helps if we can laugh at ourselves and laugh at different situations – life feels lighter when we’re laughing together.  Laughing together helps us to be friends. We can cheer someone up by being funny in a nice way, but only if they like it.

Humour must be used carefully so that others don’t get upset.  Sometimes people tell a joke that hurts someone’s feelings. This might be on purpose or by accident.  Laughing at other people when they don’t like it, or calling people names to make people laugh is unkind. Bullying is when people keep making fun of someone and is very serious.  We shouldn’t use humour to hide the fact we are upset or need more help.

We can also refer to humour as seeing the funny side.The opposite of having a great sense of humour is being gloomy and miserable or being spiteful to other people.