Laughter.
There is a lot to be said about this human capability.
Laughter is defined as “the action or sound of laughing.”
And laughing is then described by Webster as “making the spontaneous sounds and movements of the face and body that are the instinctive expressions of lively amusement and sometimes also of contempt or derision.”
To be amused. To find something funny.
Like the Hokey Pokey, I’ll tell you. You shake it all about.
Have you ever had a time when you started laughing and couldn’t stop? No matter how hard you tried? And has that time ever fallen at a time, or a place, when you truly shouldn’t have been laughing?
This happened to me several times in my youth. Those times in church when someone did something ordinary that somehow ignited the laughter in me. Those things seem to strike us in a curious way.
As an adult, I can only remember a couple of times. I’d recount the stories here, but it would be pointless. These things always fall into the category of: “You had to be there.”
Oh. You had to be there. Apparently, all of us were. And our ancestors too. Scientists believe people used laughter to relate to one another millions of years before they developed language. This “reaction” — this mechanism of laughter — is ingrained in our brains in a big way. So much so that babies as young as 17 days old have been observed laughing. Also to note, children born blind and deaf still have the ability to laugh. It seems to be imprinted in us.
And, believe it or not, the number one catalyst for laughter isn’t a joke. We laugh the most by simply interacting with another person.
I’ve actually watched this in conversations where people “react” with a laugh at things that aren’t meant to be funny. Some people do this WAY more than others.
And with that? Here is something else about laughing. Many of us are quicker to laugh than others. It isn’t because we want it that way. It appears to be genetic. Northwestern University conducted a study. They found a gene called 5-HTTLPR. People with the short version, or allele, of gene 5-HTTLPR, are quicker to laugh at cartoons or funny movie clips than those with the long version of the gene.
No matter the reason or circumstances or even the history, scientists all agree that laughter is good for us. Research has linked laughter with “boosts in immune function, pain tolerance, cardiovascular health, and maybe even memory retention.”
• A typical 10-minute conversation has an average of 5.8 bouts of laughter.
• An adult laughs an estimated 15 to 20 times a day.
• Ten to 15 minutes of daily laughing burns 10 to 40 calories.
• The ideal number of words in a joke? 103.
Here is another great thing. Even if we have a sense of humor equivalent to a rock, we can still reap the benefits of laughter. All we have to do is fake it. A study was done by “Psychological Reports.” They found that forcing ourselves to laugh (or even smiling) can improve our mood.
Evidently, our brains are not able to distinguish spontaneous laughter from self-induced laughter. As such, we will reap the same health-related benefits when we fake laugh at something.
Ha, ha. I’m feeling better already.
Most of us like to laugh, myself included. But there is one more thing you should know about me.
I mentioned that the Hokey Pokey was funny. Well. I was addicted to the Hokey Pokey, but then I turned myself around.
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“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
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“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”
— Charlie Chaplin
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“Seven days without laughter makes one weak.”
— Mort Walker
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Tickle your ribs. Oh. Laugh it up.
