Who Doesn’t Need a Good Laugh?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Today, we talk about the best medicine ever…laughter.  Yeah, maybe it won’t cure those physical ailments overnight, but I guarantee it’ll be good for your soul.  And I do guarantee what’s good for your soul works wonders in healing your body.

We don’t have enough laughter in our modern lives.  Existence, in spite of all the conveniences we think we can’t live without in 2024, is burdensome.  There’s always something to worry about, and we’re bombarded with fear mongering.  There’s little time or occasion to laugh, unless we make a concerted effort to seek out the lighter, more fun, happier things, to nurture them, and to spread the joy around.  

That’s what I’m advocating here.  No matter how uncomfortable it is, no matter how sacrilegious it feels, seek out and create opportunities to be goofy, to laugh out loud, to make people laugh, to turn your staid, calm, adult world on its head, and revel in the joy of good, renewing, tension relieving, muscle relaxing laughter.

According to comedian Paul Osincup, a past president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (yes, there really is such a thing, and you can get on their mailing list!), you don’t have to be a comedian to laugh more. “Humor is not a talent, it’s a habit,” he says. He suggests not worrying about being clever or funny, but instead to get in the habit of seeing humor in everyday situations.

Laughing is especially important for helping to keep us alive and feeling younger.  Actor Carl Reiner was interviewed about a year before he died and was asked how often he laughed.  The answer was “daily.”  He was 98 at the time of his death.

“There is no doubt about it,” he said in a 2019 Washington Post interview. “Laughter is my first priority. I watch something every night that makes me laugh. I wake up and tickle myself while I’m still in bed. There is no greater pleasure than pointing at something, smiling and laughing about it. I don’t think there is anything more important than being able to laugh. When you can laugh, life is worth living. It keeps me going. It keeps me young.”

Several weeks ago, I went on a two-hour road trip with 3 other women.  I was driving.  On the way  home I  missed an exit.  My navigator quickly found a route to turn around on Google Maps and started to laugh.  She showed the passengers in the back seat her phone and commented what the route looked like to her. They, too, roared with laughter.  I never did get to see the Google route on her phone as I was concentrating on driving.  But they laughed pretty much the rest of the way home. It was a delightful trip back and I can’t wait until the next time I get to be with this group of women. Who doesn’t want to be around people who laugh and who make them laugh?

As Randy and I were driving home from New England last week we accidentally got off on a wrong A-B exit.  Good old Google Maps rerouted us immediately.  When the new route came up, I had a flashback to what my girl friends must have been laughing at.  There, plain as day, on my phone, was the perfect representation of my route.  It looked just like a penis and testicles.  I started to laugh.  And got to tell the story to Randy who laughed right along with me.  It was a perfect way to forget much of the tension of being in the car for the third straight full day!

When you laugh uncontrollably, you often bend over.  This is because it helps with exhalation when,  during laughter, the diaphragm is “moving dynamically.”  We often hear that humorless people “have a stick up their ass.”  Obviously, the two are incompatible.  There’s no way a person with a stick up their ass can bend over in laughter.  Ain’t it amazing the way God designed us?!?

My dad was a very funny guy with a wickedly dry sense of humor.  One of our classic family stories is about the time we were in the funeral parlor attending a service for my mom’s twin brother.  Uncle Eddie’s body was laid out there at the front of the room.  The minister who was supposed to conduct the service was late.  I imagine he had no good reason to be on time, it wasn’t like he knew Eddie, or he’d ever see any of us again.  The wait dragged on for a long time, time during which we family members were getting a tad bit restless. 

We’re naturally a boisterous family, and we were trying to be respectful, but the funny stories people were whispering about Eddie during the wait made it harder and harder.  When we got a little too rambunctious, one of my sisters tried her best to shoosh us all.  It worked once or twice, but never did last long.  On her third attempt to get us to quiet down, my dad turned to her and with a perfectly straight face,  “you be quiet…what do you think the first three letters of FUN-eral are?  F-U-N!”  We all burst out laughing hilariously and just let the rest of the service be fun.  Eddie, who, while he was still alive, had the best laugh of all, would have loved it. 

I think what we find funny is both subjective and generational.  Honestly, the stuff the entertainment industry calls funny today is not at all laughable to me and Randy.  There seems to be a trend toward chaos, bad luck, meanness, vulgarity, and filth, none of which we find worth humorous. Even on Drybar Comedy, which I wrote about here, only the older comedians make us really laugh. 

When we want to laugh, I sometimes search the internet for “laugh out loud movies.”  The things that come up baffle me.  So, if Randy and I want to watch something funny, we go to old TV shows and movies.  Clips from the Johnny Carson show, for example, are some of our favorites.  Carol Burnett once said,  ‘Funny is funny. I dare anyone to look at Tim Conway and Harvey Korman doing the dentist sketch, which is more than 40 years old, and not scream with laughter.’   Watch that here and see what you think. 

Here are some quotes about laughter that I find profound. 

So, why not make a habit of laughing? Don’t be afraid to be goofy, silly, giggly, exuberant, playful, joyous, frivolous, ditzy!  Where do you go to get your laugh on?  What’s the funniest movie you’ve ever seen?  When was the last time you laughed so much you were still smiling hours later?  Let’s hear your stories so we can all laugh together. 

P.S. We’re eyeballs deep in election season. And that’s NOT a laughing matter. You are tasked with the responsibility to help create the country you want to live in, and that your grandchildren will grow up in. Close your eyes to the personalities involved and use your right to vote to create the world for future generations.