Laughter is Actually a Really Good Medicine
Living Happy
If you only look at comments on some social media posts, you’d think that my town was the worst place in the world.
But comments don’t make reality. We make things a reality. Our actions. Our thoughts. Our pursuits.
I was reminded of that Saturday night when I watched three Maine comedians squeeze into a space that felt like a fancy living room at the Ivy Manor Inn. A copper ceiling shined above us all packed in. The comedians could touch knees with the audience as they spun stories and jokes into the early March air. It was tight. It was crowded. It was absolutely amazing.
Everyone was there for a couple reasons: to laugh and to do something.
But what they got was something a lot bigger than that. They got a respite. They got stress relief. They got community.
We all cheered for the guy who was trying to get to the bathroom and couldn’t and then decided to get another drink and some water and sit back down and wait it out. We all laughed at the three stand-ups. We learned people’s birth years, their names. People picked up other people’s hats when they fell on the floor, waved at each other, asked how each other was doing and really cared about the response.
We watched one of our local state representatives sitting in the middle of the audience, bending at the waist as she laughed at her son who was up first in the trio of stand-ups. The pride in her eyes? Her belly laughs joining in with everyone else’s? It was amazing.
I wrote a pre-show story here, but it doesn’t come close to the heart of would happen there on Saturday night. What happened there was joy. What happened there was connection. What happened there was community.
Some of these stand-ups, they’ve worked all their lives to cultivate the joke, the laugh, how to knock down a fourth wall between them and the audience and when not to, working toward the five-laughs-per-minute standard, cultivating the first story, the second story, the A material.
And it showed.
“I think comedy gives people permission to blow off steam and laugh at the irony of life around them,” Brendan Williams told me when I asked.
That’s exactly what happened in that little space for those two shows on Saturday. People blew off steam. A guy who just lost his dog, pitched forward and made his own joke. A sad looking woman who didn’t speak to anyone before the show started laughed so hard that she cried. So did another one.
There’s a pretty tremendous beauty in that.
No, humor doesn’t erase bad choices. No, going to a comedy show doesn’t magically wipe away corruption or bad times. But there is beauty in laughing together, in letting off steam. That’s what community is about. It’s about coming together, lifting each other up instead of pushing each other down. It’s not just about finding flaws, it’s about celebrating beauty and appreciating a good one-liner.
The Mayo Clinic writes that the short-term benefits of laughter include: Stimulating organs; relieving and activating a stress response (makes you feel relaxed); and it soothes tension.
“Laughter isn't just a quick pick-me-up, though. It's also good for you over the long term. Laughter may:
“Improve your immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. By contrast, positive thoughts can actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses.
“Relieve pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers.
“Increase personal satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people.
“Improve your mood. Many people experience depression, sometimes due to chronic illnesses. Laughter can help lessen your stress, depression and anxiety and may make you feel happier. It can also improve your self-esteem.”
And there are ways to cultivate that in your life. Humor, they insist, can be learned. Notice what makes you laugh or even smile. Make a list. Collect those images or sayings or books or articles. Go online for jokes. Listen to a funny podcast. Support comedians when they show up in your little Maine town in March.
Don’t be afraid to laugh at the ridiculousness that happens in your own life, too. Finally get to have sex with your wife who has been sick and the dog is actually not in the bed and you don’t need a magic little blue pill but then . . . but then . . . a pillow knocks over a glass of water—a very full glass of water—on the bedside table, onto the floor and all the books waiting to be read? You can sulk. It’s okay. But it might be better for you to find the humor in it.
If you have friends that make you laugh? Hang out with them more.
Maybe Johnny Ater, one of the comedians, said it best. “There has been times when I use my humor to avoid feeling for sure. But I’m a true believer that laughter is the best medicine.”
It’s a medicine we can all use.