MAKE ME LAUGH, PLEASE!

Someone make me laugh! PLEASE!

Is it just me or could you use more laughs too? The world has been so heavy lately, we need some relief from all the noise, clamor and stress. Can someone just make me laugh?

Laughter is rumored to be good medicine, but at the same time be contagious. Both are true. Ever notice how laughing just improves a mood? Is that a psychological thing? Turns out, laughter is really very healthy for all of us. Laughter is more contagious than any cold or sniffle. It can bind people together. Laughing causes us to relax. All of our walls come down, and we lay down the heaviness of sadness or depression.

Laughter sparks changes, positive physical changes, in the body. Humor and laughter are the antidote to stress and pain. A good laugh triggers endorphins or work as a temporary pain reliever. Even the blood vessels respond to laughter. The blood vessels expand and blood flow increases. Stress can vanish when one is in the middle of a good belly laugh. How can you feel sad, anxious or angry while laughing? You cannot.

I recently read a biography about Theodore Roosevelt. In it was a story of how Roosevelt's mother, a lady from Georgia, was a Confederate sympathizer during the Civil War. The Roosevelts were from New York and staunch Union supporters. When the future President got into trouble this particular time with his mother, he began to pray out loud for the Union army and that God be on the side of the Yankees to defeat the Rebels. His mother laughed and did not punish him, although his father did later on for the deed. Humor can be used to defuse uncomfortable or even difficult situations. Children have forever tried to make their parents laugh to dodge punishments. Sometimes it works and sometime it does not.

Laughter is something best when shared. There is just something so binding when a group of people are partaking in some good old belly laughing together. At that moment, at that very instant, the world (at least in that space) is perfect-- absolutely perfect. 

Sometimes, even a laugh can make us laugh. In the clips of the baby and the one of The Comedy Barn, it is not the content of the language or an animation that makes us laugh, it is the mechanical thing, the laugh itself that is so funny. Some folks just are like that--have the funniest types of laughs that create an atmosphere that just breeds more laughter. Laughter puts all of us at ease.

Laughter is big business too. How many people make their livings making people laugh or do stand up comedy? Humor is an escape and a time out from all of the pressing things in our lives. 

The best comedy so much of the time is based on truth and things that really happened. The things children say or the content of a marital quarrel or someone falling down. Yes, I said it. What in the world is so funny about someone falling that triggers the inner child in us and reduces us to laughing so hard tears began to flow? 

Comedians like Bill Cosby, Ray Romano and Jerry Seinfeld have all been so successful due to their ability to take everyday situations we can all relate to and make them into funny stories with precise comedic timing.

Thankfully, I am not so young that I never had the opportunity to see the old comedy shows when I was a kid. I still remember laughing every time I watched The Carol Burnett Show. That show was so stinking funny and to this day, I still think the dentist skit with Tim Conway and Harvey Korman is one of the best ever. The skit still makes me laugh.

I wish the networks would drop some of these exploitive reality shows that bring out the worst nature of people and bring back the comedy variety show. Maybe the networks could make people laugh again, help us forget about layoffs and foreclosures and wars and political policies for just a little while. 

I need some laughs. Anyone with me on that?