What will make me laugh

Perhaps the most important social feature of laughter is how contagious it is. Just listening to someone laugh is funny. To test this, try keeping a straight face while watching this video of a man tickling a gorilla. You can even catch laughter from yourself. Start with a forced laugh and if you keep it up you will soon find yourself laughing for real.

What these observations show is that laughter is both fundamentally social, and rooted deep within our brains, part and parcel of ancient brain structures. We laugh because we feel like it, because our brains make us, and because we want to fit in socially. All these things are true. But biologists distinguish at least four fundamental types of answer you can give to explain behaviour : "why did it evolve? This column has given some answers to the first question laughter evolved for social interaction and the last question laughter is controlled by evolutionary ancient brain centres that control breathing and speech , but even with the beginnings of answers to these two questions, the other two are far from being answered.

Each time we get closer to an answer for a fundamental question, it deepens our appreciation of the challenge remaining to answer the others. Thank you to Andrew Martin for suggesting the topic. Nobody could make me laugh like him. We had so much fun together. He could always make me laugh. Well, she couldn't make me laugh , off or on the stage. Didn't you say you will make me laugh? He was always there to protect me and make me laugh.

All I lack here, dear Lizzy, is you, to make me laugh at myself. Stop it, you're going to make me laugh. But most of all, you really make me laugh. When was the last time you had a really good laugh? What were you Doing?

Do more of that. Follow Funny People on Twitter. Follow two or three funny accounts on Twitter so you get a few laughs as you see the tweets go by on your stream.

One funny account I follow is itsWillyFerrell. Start a Joke Jar. Get your whole family to laugh more by starting a joke jar. Do the following:. Try Laughter Meditation. As I wrote in my post on how to meditate , there are many different meditation practices you can try. One of these is laughter meditation. I hope this post made you laugh! After all, laughter is the best medicine. Live your best life by laughing more. Get started with the 22 tips above.

Next post: 75 Simple Life Rules. Marelisa Fabrega is a lawyer and entrepreneur. You can learn more about her here. This site rocks the Classic Responsive Skin for Thesis. Here are some of the many benefits of laughing more: Laughter causes you to gulp in large portions of air, thereby oxygenating your blood. Laughter decreases stress hormones in the body such as cortisol and adrenaline, thus helping to stave off illness.

Laughter strengthens the immune system. When we laugh our bodies release hormones and chemicals that have positive effects on our system. One of these chemicals is endorphins, the feel-good hormone. One minute of laughing burns the same number of calories as 6 to 10 minutes on a treadmill. Laughing raises your mood; joyfulness through laughter is the fastest way to create a positive state of mind. Laughing is good for the heart and improves blood circulation.

Laughter can reduce pain and aid the healing process. Laughter creates and strengthens human connections. It feels good to laugh. Ignatius J. Reilly is a slothful thirty-year-old crank who lives with his mother in early s New Orleans. In his reluctant quest for employment, this modern day Don Quixote gets up to all manner of hijinks, with all manner of oddballs, in the vibrant chaos of the French Quarter. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. So, Skippy dies. The Earth is about to be demolished for a galactic freeway—pave paradise and put up a parking lot, am I right?

If you thought the film adaptation was funny, you should pick up the source material and join this unlikely pair on their mad-cap adventure through time and space. And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling. Everybody loves Mindy Kaling. Before she exploded, Agnes Nutter Witch was very clear: the world will end on a Saturday.

So, naturally, everything is going to shit, but an unlikely pairing—an angel and a demon—have grown accustomed to living among the mortals here on Earth and team up to sabotage the End Times.

A pretty wild set-up from the guy who brought us The World According to Garp. Okay, so this is a personal pick, but I really did laugh out loud quite a bit while reading it! The title alone got me a lot of good-natured half-laughs on the subway from strangers. Curious about the rest of the recommendations?