Where to find a reason to laugh today: Rule number 1, no clowns... well, maybe just the one below.

 

Editor's precede for perspective: In these somber pandemic and political unrest days, it is hard to find a reason to laugh, and the media pushes it all right in our faces. But thankfully, these are not 'forever days' and the soul must laugh or die a thousand deaths. So keep looking and finding cause. Your life depends on it.

"Laughter is the closest distance between two people." Victor Borge

Ever walk down the street with a smile and nod to the stranger(s) walking toward you? Most smile back... not counting the few who think you are an idiot. However, this is absolutely guaranteed to give at least one person--you--a lighter step. And you can be sure it affects a few more than that.

A lighter heart is a free, non-toxic, over-the-counter drug that is good for almost anything that may ail you. The welcome side-effect is that it is infectious.

Here are a few tips to bring a smile and more to your psyche so you can be on your way to a better day.

'The human race has only one effective weapon, and that is laughter." Mark Twain

Below are/were headlines of  real stories from newspapers (what are newspapers?) around the country. Typically, headlines are written, often at the last minute before deadline, by an editor who reads the story quickly then writes the headline to fit the space allotted. The headline capsules the story in just a few words to pique the reader's interest. And some goofy headlines--I personally know this--were written purposely, to elicit a smile and not get fired:

• Include your children when baking cookies
• Something went wrong in jet crash, experts say
• police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers
• Drunks get nine months in violin case
• Iraqi head seeks arms
• Is there a ring of debris around Uranus? (personal favorite)
• Would-be women priests appeal to pope
  
• Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over
• Teacher strikes idle kids
• Clinton wins budget; more lies ahead
• Plane too close to ground, crash probe told
• Miners refuse to work after death
• Juvenile court to try shooting defendant
• Stolen painting found by tree
• Two sisters reunited after 18 years in checkout line
• War dims hope for peace
• If strike isn't settled quickly, it may last a while
• Couple slain; police suspect homicide
• Man struck by lightning faces battery charge
• New study of obesity looks for large test group
• Astronaut takes blame for gas in space
• Kids make nutritious snacks
• Local high school dropouts cut in half
• Typhoon rips through cemetery; hundreds dead

"Seven days without laughter makes one weak." Mort Walker

Then there is the old 'pie in the eye' thing, more popular years ago, that shows comedians Laurel and Hardy setting a world record you won't believe: more than 3,000 pies in the face! That always used to get a laugh, right up there with the banana peel on the sidewalk... today replaced with some home video of a trick going awry with some object smacking into a man's crotch on America's Funniest Videos. I guess today we just demand something more sophisticated. 

"Maturity is the bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything." Kurt Vonnegut

Are we so somber today that monkeys have a richer sense of humor than we do? Primates don't just laugh, they crack jokes.

Koko, a famed gorilla who died a short while back at age 47, knew sign language and had a 2,000 word vocabulary. When she was asked, "what can you think of that's hard? She signed "rock" and "work." Another time, she tied her trainer's shoelaces together and signed "Chase." That's a true story. Ask Wikipedia.

Why do waiters like gorillas better than flies? Have you ever heard a customer complain "Waiter, there's a gorilla in my soup!"

"Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter." Friedrich Nietzsche

Obviously Nietzsche didn't know Koko, but his quote is mostly accurate. 

The greatest cause for laughter is when you look in the mirror. It is you. I remember the last time I changed the oil in my car. (Hint: it was also the first time.) I was cleaning and waxing my first car, a '54 Chevy coupe, and thought I'd save myself a few dollars and change the oil. All went incredibly well until I leaned over the front of the engine to pour the in new oil and noticed that my feet were starting to slip out from under me.

Seems like I missed step no. 3: Be sure to put the cap back onto the oil reservoir before refilling.

And that is the closest I ever came to car repair.

"Comedy is defiant. It's a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. And it's the laughter that allows hope to creep back on the inhale." Will Durst

Chuckles the Clown of the old Mary Tyler Moore show was eulogized at his death by Mary who remembered his favorite line: "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer in your pants." It is the epitome of how laughter and crying are spun from the same emotion. You can decide here if it makes you smile or cry. Or, I'm betting, laughing out loud.

"If you want to make others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." Dalai Lama

I'm a Cubs fan (why are you laughing, I haven't got to the punch line yet) but I couldn't exclude this little story for a laugh: 

A Chicago first grade teacher admits to her class that she is a die-hard Cubs fan. She asks her class if they are Cub fans too. Most, perhaps not really knowing what being a Cub fan is but wanting to please their teacher, raise their hands. All, that is, except one young lady in the back row.

"Then what are you?" the teacher asks. 

"I'm a Chicago White Sox fan," the girl says.

The teacher, taken aback, because that's how Cub fans are, asks why she is a White Sox fan.

"My dad and mom are White Sox fans and I am too."

 "Well, if your mom was a moron and your dad was a moron, what would you be then?"

"Then," says the girl, "I'd be a Cub fan."

"Laughter is a gift from God which requires a different kind of thank you note." Me

How important is laughter? It's important enough that most television comedy sitcoms have laugh tracks. I thought this was demeaning to the viewer so I started to blog about that. It was then, I discovered, it really does have a place. And here's why

"Laughter is like a windshield wiper. It doesn't stop the rain but it allows us to keep going" Somebody smart.

True confession: I've been blogging for about 12 years now and have posted more than 800 times, so many that I sometimes actually forget what I've written. Some of this post is repurposed. To see all I've written about, check the links that run beside my blog and have a look. I often make myself laugh but how about you, out of sympathy perhaps. 

If all the world had a laugh track, nothing would be funnier than elevator music... Aunt Minnie's funeral... the Cubs losing... slipping on a banana peel (wait, that's already funny)...

Nothing makes me feel more duped than to listen to the laugh track behind the Big Bang Theory or even I Love Lucy and think laughing was my idea.

On the other hand, if the whole world had a laugh track, Donald Trump would have us laying in the aisles. (I know, not funny but I... ha ha ha... just can't... ha ha ha... help myself.)

So after all these years of bitter--but hilariously funny--resentment over this fake, not even realistic laughter that starts at the same moment and stops as if someone put a giant hand over the audience's collective mouth, sometimes at the right spot, most often trying to make something unfunny, funny, I sought to understand more.

Well, I did. Here's the skinny:

Charles "Charlie" Douglass, a sound engineer with CBS Radio after World War II, is the man who invented the laugh track. So who can get too mad about a guy who helped develop shipboard radar systems for the Navy, no doubt saving many lives.

Before television--in 1948 there were only 100,000 televisions in the United States--audiences often experienced comedy listening to the radio or watching live performances as part of a studio audience. Live audiences didn't always laugh in the right places or at the correct moment. So when the show was broadcast, crowd reactions often went amiss or just weren't that funny. It was a problem for the producers and listeners/watchers alike.

Want to see what I mean? Watch just a few minutes of this Big Bang Theory episode filmed on a sound stage with no audience and see what you think. The laugh track or sound augmentation has been stripped away. Not much fun, right?

If a joke did not get the desired chuckle, Douglass added appropriate laughter. If a live audience laughed too long, he gradually muted the laughter. This was known in the industry as "sweetening" to get a "just right" response.

Comedian Milton Berle

Comedian Milton Berle, listening to a post-production editing session, felt a joke he told fall flat. After Douglas inserted a laugh, Berle said, "See? I told you it was funny."

 

Soon, Douglass was simulating the audience response for Bewitched, The Munsters, Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, The Brady Bunch and more. While this augmentation was controversial at the onset, it soon became standard practice. His "laff box" was kept secret at first. It actually was a box, about 2 feet tall and operated like an organ. The device was padlocked so his technique could not be known. Few in the industry ever witnessed Douglass at work. The 'laff box" actually turned up in a 2010 episode of Antiques Roadshow to be valued at $10,000.

Today, it is a digital device about the size of a laptop with a great many more laughs and other human sounds. The technique has evolved... though sometimes, not for the better because no matter how much laughter, some things are still turkeys.

But I am now a believer of the need--though not every imposed laugh track fits my taste or worse, works to milk a lame situation--laughter is worth it. It still bothers me to be instructed when to laugh. But then again, laughter is always worth it.  

Wonder where the quote "Laugh and the world laughs with you... " comes from? Read on and be in awe.

It was poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, born in 1850, who knew, even that far back, what is really important in life. Her poem "Solitude"  resonates through time and seems to have special relevance today. Here's her first few lines for you sluggards who will read no further, but do yourself a favor and read the whole poem below and take it to heart. It's worth it.

Solitude

Related Poem Content Details

BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone;

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer;

Sigh, it is lost on the air;

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;

Grieve, and they turn and go;

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

But they do not need your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many;

Be sad, and you lose them all,—

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;

Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a large and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.