CINEMA, COMEDY, AND THE PSYCHE: EXPLORING LAUGHTER, IDENTIFICATION, AND EMOTIONAL REGULATION IN TAMIL CINEMA

Tamil cinema has long treated
comedy not as a decorative
addition to narrative but as a
central mode through which spectators
process anxiety, social conflict, moral
contradiction, and emotional fatigue. Research
on film psychology shows that comedy
cinema can influence not only mood but also
self-concept, sociability, and forms of self
affirmation, suggesting that laughter in film is
tied to cognition and identity as much as to
pleasure alone. Studies on humorous film
viewing also argue that comic structures may
activate dopamine- and endorphin-linked
feelings of relief, curiosity, and relaxation,
which helps explain why audiences
repeatedly return to comic films during
periods of stress. Building on these insights,
this article examines Tamil cinema as a
distinctive cultural field in which humor
mediates between entertainment and
psychological response. The article argues that
Tamil film comedy operates through
recognizable mechanisms of incongruity,
superiority, relief, mimicry, satire, and
character identification, and that these
mechanisms shape emotional regulation in
viewers while also reproducing or challenging
social values.
The discussion focuses on the historical
evolution of comedy in Tamil cinema, the
psychology of laughter, audience
identification with comic bodies and voices,
the use of humor to process fear and
humiliation, and the changing role of comedy
from the era of N. S. Krishnan to performers
such as Goundamani, Senthil, Vadivelu,
Vivek, Santhanam, Yogi Babu, and digitally
circulating meme-comedy culture. The article
proposes that Tamil comedy has worked as a
psychological safety valve for audiences
facing class pressure, family conflict, urban
stress, and political cynicism, even while some
comic traditions have depended on ridicule,
stereotype, and symbolic aggression. In this
sense, Tamil cinema comedy is
psychologically double-edged: it can heal,
release, and connect, yet it can also normalize
social hierarchies through repetitive mockery.