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Saturday 19 December 2015

Laughter

An ancient Greek philosopher called Crysippus died from a fit of laughter while watching a drunk mule try to eat from a fig tree.

Scandinavian folklore teaches that nothing bad can happen to a person who's laughing.

The word "chortle," meaning "to laugh in a breathy, gleeful way," was originally a nonsense word in Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky."

In 1893, farmer Wesley Parsons laughed to death over a joke told in Laurel, Indiana. He laughed for nearly an hour. He then died two hours after the incident.

In the Summer of 1907 a performer named "Sober Sue" began to appear onstage at Hammerstein's Roof Garden in New York City. Her draw was she never laughed.  The theater offered $1000 to any one who could make her laugh, attracting big comedians. Crowds came out to watch them try, and fail, giving them a free show. Later it came out that Sue suffered from facial paralysis.

On October 14, 1920, 56-year-old Mr. Arthur Cobcroft, a dog trainer from Loftus Street, Leichhardt, Australia, died from laughter after reading how certain commodities had changed in price from 1915 and making a remark to his wife concerning this. A doctor was called in and he said the death was due to heart failure, brought on by excessive laughter.

A laughing epidemic that lasted a year broke out in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1962. Thousands were affected, across several villages, resulting in the closure of 14 schools.


Babies first start to laugh at 3.5 months old.

The Navajo have a tradition around celebrating a baby’s first laugh. Around three months, they watch the baby closely for that first real giggle. The person who has the good fortune of eliciting that first laugh is then responsible for throwing a party.

"Canned laughter" tracks no longer exist, and is almost always a real live studio audience whose recording has been artificially "sweetened" in post production.

Each time you laugh you burn up, on average, 3.5 calories.

Laughing for an hour can burn as many calories as lifting weights for 30 minutes.


The average person laughs 15 times a day.

In the 1950’s, people laughed an average of 18 minutes a day - Currently, we laugh an average of 4-6 minutes a day.

The number 5 is pronounced 'ha' in Thai so "555" is slang for "hahaha."

Dogs can "laugh" when they're playful. Researchers played recordings of dogs laughing to stressed shelter dogs, resulting in the dogs showing significantly fewer signs of stress.

When a recording of a dog's laugh is played to puppies they instantly show signs of joy and begin bouncing around and respond with laughs of their own; the same sounds have a calming effect on dogs in an animal shelter.

Rats laugh when they are tickled and during playtime.

Laughing is a sign of aggression in parrots.

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