A good guffaw is wonderful

THE ART OF LAUGHTER:

LAUGHTER is one of life’s greatest gifts. It comes fourth after a child, a new kidney and a big yacht.

By all accounts I’m pretty generous when it comes to dishing it out and I see no point in getting hung up on the distinction between having people laugh with you and having them laugh at you.

On the occasions when people laugh with me it really is lovely to see their smile spread and their eyes close as they shake their head and chuckle before saying, “No. I don’t read your column.”

Laughter is wonderful because it makes you feel warm inside. It’s good for the soul, it’s a pick-me-up with no side-effects. Whatever the situation, having a laugh will lighten the load. Even if you’re about to die a gruesome and painful death, a knock-knock joke or someone tripping over will have you tittering as you meet your maker.

A laugh is a smile that bursts, it’s a star in the sky of your life. People can’t fight or argue if they’re laughing and when you sigh at the end of a good one, you’ll feel a little bit of heaven rush through your body. Once, doctors even prescribed it as medicine but it’s not quite that good so unfortunately it led to lots of people dying from treatable ailments.

The spectrum of laughter goes from being slightly tickled through chortling to guffawing. Each stage is a pleasure to behold. While some laughs move up the scale gradually, others will hit you with a wham and leave you struggling to stand up or breath. There is some concern in our family that my dad will die mid-belly laugh after opening a birthday card.

But snorting is where I draw the line. An ex-girlfriend and I almost had to leave a cinema once when she lost it completely after snorting. She was gripped by a terrifying, paralysing and uncontrollable fit of giggles. Heroically, I stepped in and threw my large Fanta over her and her ordeal stopped. I offered her some popcorn. It was the kindest thing I could do.

This is an example of laughing when you don’t want to. Other times when it’s not good is at funerals or when your friend is telling you about the collapse of their relationship. You just have to claim you’re laughing because otherwise you’d cry,

Some people seem to laugh all the time. They’re open for amusement and they smile in anticipation. It seems to me that they’re pretty happy with their lot.

So, if you do decide to laugh at life it appears that life really will laugh back. Of course, it may be that most of the time it’s laughing at you not with you but, as I say, I tend not to draw the distinction.

Next week… The Art of Running