Laugh With Me :-D

If you're as old as I am you may remember the song I Love to Laugh from the original Mary Poppins movie. In that scene, Mary's Uncle Albert can't stop laughing, causing him to float to the ceiling. Mary, Bert and the kids try to help him but wind up laughing just as hard and join him up on the ceiling. 

Uncle Albert sings:

          The more I laugh,

          The more I fill with glee,

          And the more the glee,

          The more I'm a merrier me.

No matter how many times I watch that video it always makes me laugh. I dare you to watch it (it's on YouTube) and try to keep a straight face. Nostalgia aside, why does a fifty-seven year old movie about other people laughing still make me laugh? I'll tell you why: laughing is contagious, but in a good way. If you see people laughing at a joke that you can't hear you'll smile automatically, even if you don't realize it. Your brain responds to the sound of laughter by preparing your face to do the same.

Laughter makes you feel good and it's good for you. Studies show laughing decreases pain, boosts immunity, and lowers stress hormones. Hospital patients who utilize laughter have shorter hospital stays and faster recoveries. It's also enjoyable to make other people laugh. Jerry Seinfeld's father was a salesman and a funny guy. He would take young Jerry with him on sales calls and brag, "Watch this, I'm going to crack that face." 

Here's something funny, your brain can't tell the difference between real and fake laughter. It's true. If you force yourself to laugh, even when there's nothing to laugh about, you still receive the health benefits of a genuine laugh. Happy endorphins are released and stress hormones are reduced. If you need assistance adding simulated laughter to your life, there are laugh yoga and laugh therapy groups. I swear those are real things and I hope I never need them. But never say never. 

Way before the pandemic, in the before time, I went to a comedy show with some girlfriends and laughed until I cried. I remarked afterwards how I couldn't remember the last time I'd laughed so hard. I realized then what was missing from my life, the joy of laughter. I used to take laughing for granted, before I started taking everything so seriously. Life is serious, no doubt about it, but you still have permission to laugh. 

So, what's funny? People disagree. Women prefer wordplay and humorous stories while men more often like one-liners and slapstick. Physical humor transcends cultural differences. Back in the seventies, my husband's grandparents were the first people to own a TV in their village in India. Every afternoon, they would turn on the TV and open the window. You could hear people all over the neighborhood beckoning each other, calling out Lucy! Lucy! before gathering at the window to watch I Love Lucy and laugh uproariously. Keep in mind the show was twenty years old and depicted a life they knew nothing about. They were uneducated laborers who led hard lives--and spoke no English. Yet, day after day, they rushed over to watch the show and share a laugh. Isn't that remarkable?  

Humor writer Dave Barry says the secret to writing humor is to put the funniest part at the end, something unexpected and ridiculous. I try to channel Dave whenever I write humorous essays. One of my favorite reviews was from a man who wrote: this book really cheered me up when I was down. That made my day. Here's an excerpt from my essay book A Smidge of Crazy. I hope I can crack that face. 

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Can a brief encounter with a stranger change your life forever? Of course it can. You're rolling your eyes, I can see you. Well, let me tell you about Howard Parks…

This isn't the tale of an unsung hero--although, for all I know, Howard Parks has rescued people from burning buildings, performed the Heimlich maneuver on dozens of choking victims, and saved countless texters from oncoming traffic. Anything is possible. I'm not saying Howard Parks isn't heroic and inspiring, he is. If he weren't, my husband and I wouldn't speak of him so reverently; we wouldn't use his name in times of crisis; we wouldn't ask each other in hushed voices, "What would Howard Parks do?"

Twenty-four years ago, long before Equifax spewed your personal data into the world, including the name of your first pet, Hammy the Hamster, and long before Facebook gave away all of your secrets, right before they gave away all of your friends' secrets, Howard Parks was vigilant. I imagine he slept with one eye open as his brain conjured the many ways that things could go terribly, terribly wrong. He was British, which gave him an air of credibility. He was calm, which made him seem reasonable. And he was insistent, a quality many people found annoying, but which we found endearing in the extreme. It's why we love him.

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Just remember, a good  time to laugh is anytime you can.