# Did Helen Keller laugh?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 21, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642 "2014-07-21T03:10:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/1 "2014-07-21T03:10:25Z")
I’m wondering if laughter and sense of humor are innate or learned behaviors. Also, did she, personally, laugh?
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### Author:  [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/2 "2014-07-21T03:40:36Z")
She had a great sense of humor. She would split her nails laughing.
Could not resist.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/3 "2014-07-21T03:46:49Z")
Science (though not about HK): [An acoustic analysis of laughter produced by congenitally deaf and normally hearing college students - PMC](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2809699/)
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### Author:  [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/4 "2014-07-21T03:50:43Z")
Some would argue that you can’t learn something unless you have the innate capacity for such learning. You can’t teach math to a cat. I would suggest that a sense of humor is like most attributes, some have more and some have less and I’m sure one could have it beat out of them.
[From here.](http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hkeller.htm)
People who knew Keller underlined her good sense of humor and imagination. They also noted that she was not an ethereal, virginal figure from some Renaissance painting, but a tall, dark, beautiful woman, who had a great sense of humor.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/5 "2014-07-21T03:59:06Z")
[Yes (or people in her situation do)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing#Nature). Note the end of the second paragraph (relative to my link) and the cite.
Rats laugh, after a fashion.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/6 "2014-07-21T04:04:47Z")
she had her happy dance.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/7 "2014-07-21T04:06:00Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> Rats laugh, after a fashion.
Dogs laugh – [and other dogs love the sound of it](http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=1370911).
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/8 "2014-07-21T04:21:16Z")
Here’s a picture of [Helen Keller (center) whooping it up](https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6135/5988531902_e6f46b1a65_z.jpg) with a couple of friends.
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### Author:  [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/9 "2014-07-21T04:55:54Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Here’s a picture of [Helen Keller (center) whooping it up](https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6135/5988531902_e6f46b1a65_z.jpg) with a couple of friends.
that’s nice! 🙂
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### Author:  [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/10 "2014-07-21T05:06:37Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Here’s a picture of [Helen Keller (center) whooping it up](https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6135/5988531902_e6f46b1a65_z.jpg) with a couple of friends.
That’s Keller on the left, correct? If so, umm… why is she wearing glasses?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/11 "2014-07-21T05:09:55Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#):
>
> That’s Keller on the left, correct? If so, umm… why is she wearing glasses?
As I indicated in my post, Keller is in the center. (Perhaps you need reading glasses?;))
The other women in the photo are identified as Nella Braddy Henney (left) and Polly Thomson.
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### Author:  [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/12 "2014-07-21T05:43:26Z")
I suggest reading the book “Helen Keller in Love” which gives alot of insight into HK.
But your right, many things are learned. for example HK discovered sex when reading a braille novel and when she asked her companion Anne Sullivan what it was she was told not to think about it but from then on she did.
BTW, the scene where Helen as a young girl has this dramatic breakthrough from a water well. It never happened. At least Helen never said it did. That came from a dramatization of her life called “The Miracle Worker” which became a broadway play.
Helen’s life, personally, financially, and her political involvement are very fascinating and not talked about much.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/13 "2014-07-21T06:17:16Z")
Anne Sullivan slowly began to fingerspell _There once was a man from Nantucket_… and Helen Keller discovered the gift of humor.
😃 ah, Helen’s favorite limerick.
- There once was a man from Nantucket
Whose dick was so long he could suck it.
And he said with a grin
As he wiped off his chin,
“If my ear were a hole I could fuck it.” \*
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/14 "2014-07-21T06:19:04Z")
How did HK know that the other two women in that photo were also whooping it up?
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### Author:  [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/15 "2014-07-21T10:37:48Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> As I indicated in my post, Keller is in the center. (Perhaps you need reading glasses?;))
>
> The other women in the photo are identified as Nella Braddy Henney (left) and Polly Thomson.
Well I’m not quite sure about the photo since from what I’ve read Anne Sullivan and Helen’s mother isolated her pretty well and few people other than them could communicate with her. Helen herself said yes, she went to college, but was never allowed to do things with the other college girls there. It was something Helen herself often became frustrated with. She also was never permitted to marry or even date and the one “romance” she had outlined in “Helen Keller in Love” was a kind of fluke how that young man came into her life.
Why? Helen was basically everyones meal ticket and her speaking and engagement fees brought in some good money.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/16 "2014-07-21T11:46:14Z")
Babies laugh when you tickle them, long before they display any meaningful evidence that they have developmentally normal vision or haring.
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### Author:  [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/17 "2014-07-21T12:28:08Z")
> [@jtur88](#):
>
> Babies laugh when you tickle them, long before they display any meaningful evidence that they have developmentally normal vision or haring.
Most babies are born with some hair. Sorry I couldn’t resist!
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/18 "2014-07-21T14:51:09Z")
I can tell that some in here already know this, but others (frankly, including the OP) need to know that Helen Keller (the real person) was about as far from Helen Keller (the poor little thing in the movie and in the jokes) as it’s possible to get.
She was brilliant, accomplished, committed… and an outspoken political radical.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/19 "2014-07-21T15:09:38Z")
I hadn’t considered the role of outside cues to develop humor. But certainly a baby sees and hears their parents laughing. It seems likely outside stimuli plays a important role.
I think Anne Sullivan must have introduced humor to Helen. Just like she did other concepts like words for water and other physical objects.
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### Author:  [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-helen-keller-laugh/693642/20 "2014-07-21T16:12:45Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> I hadn’t considered the role of outside cues to develop humor. But certainly a baby sees and hears their parents laughing. It seems likely outside stimuli plays a important role.
>
> I think Anne Sullivan must have introduced humor to Helen. Just like she did other concepts like words for water and other physical objects.
Helen wasn’t born blind and deaf, she went blind and deaf at [19 months old](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller). So she would have had exposure to outside cues for long enough to learn how to laugh.
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