Gman asks: Hey Geoff, Okay, what is it...free will or determinism? But more importantly, is it true that the first laugh that ever occurred was when someone slipped on a banana?

Geoff answers: Dear Gman, which is undoubtedly pronounced "guh-man",

Free will.

But in response to your better question, I believe you are on the right track for the first laugh. However, this was hardly a banana that was slipped upon and barely a someone who did the actual slipping. Rather, the first laugh was generated when a very someone-like person slipped on a very banana-like fruit. But neither had really evolved to the point where they could reasonably called a "banana" or a "someone".

I would say that, in this case, a cro-magnon of some sort was walking down the cave one day, when his precious FIRE! blew out due to unseasonable cave winds. Though his eyes were sharper than ours out of the necessity of the hunt, even he was at a distinct disadvantage in that cave, black as night. However, slipping had not yet been invented, so cro-magnon Joe was unphased, continuing on as if he could see. Cavemen weren't very bright.

Unfortunately, his sense of smell had indeed deteriorated somewhat as he learned to rely on his superior intellect and sharper vision. Had his smell retained the acuity of 10,000 years hence, he would have detected the stench of the bangfruit looming beneath his massive foot. The primitive bangfruit has been extinct for eons now, but fossil records indicate it was red, scaly and very salty. C-M Joe slipped and slipped hard.

But you ask about the laugh. Who could have seen in that pitch-black FIRE!-less cave? Who enjoyed Joe's pain as he lifted himself by his club and trod wearily into the prehistoric night? Why none other than the common fruit bat, who had eaten the aforementioned bangfruit. And that, Gman, is where we get the phrase: "You laugh like a bat."