50 Fun Facts About Laughing (2024)+ How to Be Happier
Explore fun laughing facts and benefits that help you be a happier, more lighthearted human.
Picture this: your friend says something funny and you can’t stop giggling. Soon you’re laughing so hard your side hurts. How do you feel after?
Euphoric? Relaxed? These aren’t random coincidences. Laughter is good for you. Some might even say it’s the best medicine!
Weird Facts About Laughing
First, explore these uncommon laughter facts that will instantly boost your mood.
1. The study of laughter is called gelotology. It was first studied by psychiatrists.
2. The average adult laughs 17 times a day. (source)
3. Gorillas laugh like humans when they’re tickled.
4. Rats laugh when their necks are tickled, but their high-frequency chirps are out of our audio range.
5. Recent studies have identified 65 species of animals that “laugh” while playing. Most were mammals but a few bird species demonstrated playful laughter too. (source)
6. The World Record ‘longest laughter’ was achieved by Rajendra Kumar from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India on Jan 21, 2022. Mr. Rajendra: a World laughter yoga master, incessantly laughed for 3 hours 47 minutes and 54 seconds.
7. The American Association for Therapeutic Humor was founded in 1987 where professionals and scholars met to discuss integrating humor into a variety of therapeutic modalities.
8. Humor and Laughter Therapy is facilitated by a clinician. It involves using humorous materials such as books, shows, and stories to encourage discussion of the patients’ own humorous experiences.
9. Philosopher John Morreall believes that the first human laughter may have begun as a gesture of shared relief at the passing of danger.
10. Robert R. Provine, professor of psychology, believes our primate ancestors used a similar sound to laughter to reassure one another that their rough-and-tumble play was for fun and not an attack.
11. Laughing when tickled in our sensitive spots (under the arms, near the throat and under our feet) could be a defensive mechanism. Research suggests that we have evolved to send this signal out to show our submission to an aggressor, to dispel a tense situation and to prevent us from getting hurt.
12. You can’t tickle yourself because for tickling to work, the brain needs tension and surprise.
Laughing Health Benefits and Advantages
Next, explore the scientific and physical benefits of laughter. Those hearty chuckles lead to a happier and healthier you.
13. Laughter enhances the intake of oxygen and stimulates the heart, lungs, and muscles.
14. It activates and relieves your stress response.
15. Laughter can stimulate circulation and help muscle relaxation. This leads to reduced tension in the body for up to 45 minutes after.
16. Positive thoughts (along with laughter) can improve your immune system.
17. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce natural painkillers.
18. Laughter improves mood and lessens depression and anxiety.
19. Laughter also helps improve self-esteem.
20. A good laugh can trigger the endorphins that are released by your brain. Endorphins are the feel-good chemicals.
21. A laugh can increase and then decrease your heart rate and blood pressure.
22. Laughter protects the heart. It can improve the function of blood vessels and increase blood flow.
23. Laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day can burn approximately 40 calories.
24. Laughter may even help you to live longer. A study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor outlived those who don’t laugh as much. The difference was particularly notable for those battling cancer.
Laugh it out games:
Mental and Social Benefits of Laughter
25. Laughter adds joy and zest to life.
26. It can strengthen resilience.
27. Laughter helps you relax and recharge. This enables you to stay focused and accomplish more.
28. It shifts perspectives. This causes you to feel less overwhelmed.
29. Shared laughter strengthens relationships. In addition, it heals resentments and past hurts by helping us let go of defensiveness.
30. Laughter attracts others to us.
31. Laughter enhances teamwork and promotes group bonding.
32. Laughter helps defuse conflict.
33. You and your romantic partner are more likely to stay together if you laugh with each other.
Related:
Fun Facts About Laughing
34. You are 30 times more likely to laugh when someone else is around than when you’re by yourself.
35. Laughter is the physiological response to humor.
36. Laughter consists of two parts- a set of gestures and sound production.
37. Fifteen facial muscles contract and the stimulation of the zygomatic major muscle (the main lifting mechanism of the upper life) occurs when laughing.
38. While laughing, the respiratory system is upset by the epiglottis half-closing the larynx, so air intake occurs irregularly, making you gasp.
39. Laughter researcher and neurobiologist Robert Provine suggests that humans have a “detector” that responds to laughter by triggering other neural circuits in the brain which generates more laughter. This explains why laughter is contagious.
40. All human laughter consists of variations on a basic form that consists of short, vowel-like notes repeated every 210 milliseconds.
41. The first laughter appears at about 3.5 to 4 months of age as a way for an infant to interact with their caregivers.
42. Laughter seldom interrupts the sentence structure of speech. It punctuates speech. We only laugh during pauses when we would cough or breathe.
Related: Funny Hot Take Examples
Facts About Jokes & Laughter
43. The ideal number of words in a joke is 103.
44. Laughter is triggered when we find something humorous. There are three traditional theories about what we find humorous.
- The incongruity theory suggests that a joke becomes funny when we expect one outcome and another happens.
- The superiority theory comes into play when we laugh at jokes that focus on someone else’s mistakes, stupidity, or misfortune.
- The relief theory is used when we need a release and laughter is a way of cleansing our system of built-up tension or stress.
45. Infants and children laugh about the discoveries they are making in the world around them. (Hence their preoccupation with bodily functions and “potty humor”.)
46. Teenagers laugh at subjects that adults consider off-limits (think sex) and use humor as a tool to protect themselves or feel superior.
47. Adults laugh at shared predicaments and embarrassments as well as the issues that stress us out.
48. Humans laugh most often when talking and bonding with friends. And not when we hear a good joke.
49. The same pleasure sensors in the brain that are activated when we eat chocolate become active when we find something funny.
50. Forcing yourself to smile or laugh can improve your mood.
10 Ways to Laugh Yourself to Happiness
Next, transform your happiness by adding laughter routines to your daily life.
1. Tell jokes and riddles
2. Look for humor in everyday life. Laugh at the funny-shaped fruit or the weird things your pet does. Write down the hilarious things your kids say. And laugh it off when you make a silly mistake. Remind yourself daily to stop taking life so seriously.
3. Listening to comedians
4. Watch a funny TV show or movie
5. Smile at yourself in the mirror as you get ready in the morning
6. Try yoga laughter. It’s an exercise that incorporates breathing, yoga, stretching techniques, and laughter.
7. Ask funny questions to friends and family:
8. Try laughter meditation. It uses intentional laughter, stretching, and meditative silence.
9. Play Games:
- Funny Tongue Twisters
- Try Harry Potter Trivia or Frozen Trivia
- Family Charades Ideas
- Family Friendly Truth or Dare (I can’t tell you how much I laughed through this…)
10. Get into holidays. Many traditions are built on the foundation of connection. Build rituals into your holidays and you’ll invite more laughter into your life.
Fun Expressions About Laughter
Laughter is the best medicine.
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” – Charles Dickens
“Laughter is a bodily exercise, precious to health.” – Aristotle
“You don’t stop laughing because you grow older. You grow older because you don’t stop laughing.” – Maurice Chevalier
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” – Victor Borge
“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”- Charlie Chaplin
“Laughter is an instant vacation.” – Milton Berle
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” – Andrew Carnegie
“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.” – Vitor Hugo
“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” – E.E. Cummings
What’s Next? The Gift of Laughter
Laughing only takes a few minutes. And you’re worth it! So, what are you waiting for?
More playful posts you’ll love…
- Funny Questions to Ask Kids & Adults
- Funny Put Your Finger Down Questions
- Great Conversation Games – that make you laugh
Sources
Science.howstuffworks.com
Newsroom UCLA