Laughter The Best Medicine: Remembering World Laughter Day

It has become a practice, rather an obstinate habit honed over the years, with a firm belief in the elevating powers of music, that I start my day with a score of some lilting background music wafting across as I settle down with my salubrious cup of tea. The lilt varies in accordance with the bodily humours, prompted by an uncanny desire to be the first one in the household to take stock of the day’s beginnings. Providentially, today had to be different! Unlike the other days, when the silence would be displaced by a sonorous tone of grace, rhythm and melody; I, in my eagerness to impress, cooed onto my latest acquisition: the impressive contraption of an all-new Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) smart speakers with the Artificial Intelligence-endowed Alexa App; and with a sweep commended with an endearing voice, “Alexa, a very good morning to you”. Ahead of its time, Dear Alexa responded smartly, “Good Morning. By the way ask me how many days to May 6th, that’s my birthday. Not to forget, today is the World Laughter Day”; I was stumped! Short of asking Alexa to make me laugh, I instead decided to fathom Laughter in all its dimensions; as Mark Twain whispered in my ears: “The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter”. 

As my mind raced to gather a schematic plan for the journey into laughter, I was transported to my public school days of the early 1960s: the nonchalant naughty days of innocence and recalled the indelible repartee with our newly inducted Odia history teacher’s first class of addressing a rather boisterous and mildly undisciplined students; who in his enthusiasm to make his marked entry commanded, “Boys, better be quiet. Joke playing playing oil came out”! A stunned silence gave way to a roar of laughter, as it dawned on us that our revered teacher had just transliterated a good old Odia proverb into an hitherto unknown English…the decibels carried to the nearby Principal’s office and while we got his wrath, our dear teacher wasn’t seen for months to come; to surface later as a much changed man to prove his unforgettable mentoring as we were to discover later. That was my initiation into the world of laughter.

What then is laughter, what does it consist of, what are its characteristics and what makes a good laugh! When it all did began to be regarded with respect as an instrument of human assets! Recalling those school days again, I remember the careful utility of my sparse monthly pocket money of rupees five which was an exercise by itself in its expenditure planning. While others splurged in small niceties, I scrounged, saved a princely sum of Seventy Five Paise for the month and never forgot to subscribe to the much respected, human-interest-storied magazine of Readers Digest with the saved amount: those were the days, 1965! Like we gravitated for the Sports Page of the newspapers in our college days, the Readers Digest was invariably opened with the page marked “Laughter Is The Best Medicine”, and happiness coincided with the arrival of the Readers Digest. That phrase has remained the hallmark of an experience that has taken the world of humour and everything about it into a coveted sphere.

As I write this, since those old issues of the R & D magazines are memories now; I hold in my hand a copy of the book from my library, of the same eponymous name, ‘Laughter is the best medicine’, a compilation of the monthly entries over the years and much more, published by the house of Readers Digest in 2005. I must say that the book is a treasure trove of wit, humour, cartoons, limericks, ripostes, little stories, repartees, dialogues, quotations, humour in uniform and all that goes to comprise what is laughter: a must for the embellishment of a laughing ensemble. I have made a solemn promise to my life’s partner: to bring it out every possible day to share our laughters.

The first sentence of the book itself is a takeaway: “Laughter is a great form of communication. Catch the eye of a stranger, and share a smile at something that amuses both of you, and you have an immediate bond.”

Sample some entries:

A man meets an identical twin and asks, “Now was it you or your brother who died?”

“How do you kill a circus?
Go for the juggler”

“If I could drop dead now,
I’d be the happiest man alive.”

“It’s a funny old world-
A man’s lucky if he gets out of it alive.”

Walking into an army surplus store, a man asked if they had any camouflage jackets.
“Yes, we have”, came the reply, “but we can’t find them.”

“Husbands are like fires - they go out 
When unattended.”

The phrase “Laughter is the best Medicine”
Where did the phrase, “Laughter is the best medicine” come from? People sometimes attribute the origin of this phrase to the American publisher and humor writer Bennett Cerf. However, others have postulated earlier origins for the phrase ‘laughter is the best medicine’.
Another postulation is that in the 1300s, Henri de Mondeville, a professor of surgery, propagated post-operative therapy with humor. Norman Cousins, a journalist and a professor, also initiated this trend when he developed his own “treatment”, based on mood elevation through laughter.
One suggestion is that the phrase derives from Proverbs 17 in the Old Testament. Here, it is said that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”
The ultimate origins of the phrase may well just be lost in the mists of time, but this phrase has become such an integral property of human culture across the world that it can be said to be the property of everyone without being ‘owned’ by any single person.
World Laughter Day: The event

Celebrated since 1998, World Laughter Day is an annual event, remembered on the first Sunday of May every year, and celebrated to raise awareness about laughter and its many healing benefits. The celebration of World Laughter Day is a positive manifestation for world peace and is intended to build up a global consciousness of brotherhood and friendship through laughter.

World Laughter Day was created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, a  family doctor, who believes in facial feedback hypothesis, which postulates that a person's facial expressions can have an effect on their emotions. He is the founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga Movement.

The members of the Laughter Clubs around the world, in more than seventy countries, celebrate it by gathering at a public place, like a city hall, auditoriums, town hall or a simple park. They start off by praying for world peace and later messages by Dr. Kataria are read with people having a good hearty laugh.

History of Laughter 

Koenraad Elst , the distinguished Indologist mentions, “In an overview of the history of Hinduism, we find humour very prominently in many places. The bookish approach encounters plenty of it in the mythological lore of the Vedas and Puranas, and in the fable collections.”
The tradition of Hindu humour is so strong that even Moghul rule was countered by the invention of Akbar and Birbal stories, Muslim emperor Akbar’s Hindu minister Birbal being cast in the role of the witty court jester. Some of the Birbal stories are interchangeable with those of Mullah Nasiruddin, the Turkic jester, and given the Moghuls’ part-Turkic origin, we seem to be dealing with a confluence of two comedic traditions.
The Bible too refers to laughter in its content. King Solomon in 931 B.C. gave the earliest accounts of the healing power of laughter. The ancient Greek physicians prescribed their patients to visit the hall of comedians. They sent their patients to the theatre to be entertained as a part of the healing process.
In the King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 17: 22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”
However, in a contrarian belief, the Book of Ecclesiastes (7:3) says, “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.”
Healing Powers of Laughter
While laughter can have a variety of its manifestations, which can range from the spontaneous, the stimulated, the induced, the pathological and the attitudinal; which none of us much care about, except for academic understanding. What matters is the end to its means, which is to feel happy and elated.

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor”, said Charles Dickens.

There is laughter everywhere, one just has to look for it.

Transport yourself into the shoes of those great comedians of Bollywood. There cannot be a better place to return to every time one feels down or in need of a good laugh. A Johny Walker strolling the streets of Mumbai with the portable trappings of a barber’s, looking for an unsuspecting victim for a head massage with his croon of, “Sar Jo Tera Chakarai…”, or a prankster-teacher Mehmood wooing a charming student in Saira Bano and belting out “Ek Chatoora Naara Karke Singara…” in his impromptu southern accent can only lead to a laugh riot, aided and abetted by the venerable Kishore Kumar. There are many others too like Keshto Mukherjee, the perpetual drunkard, Tun Tun of the buxom kind, Jaspal Bhatti with his language of sarcasm, Rajendra Nath with his moronic overtones, veteran Om Prakash with his drawl, IS Johar with his double-ended repartees and many more.

Come to think of it, from our experiences of crossing the pathways of laughter: who can deny that laughter reduces pain, increases job performance, connects people emotionally, improves the flow of oxygen to the heart and brain and allows us to tolerate discomfort. Laughter, no wonder, is said to be the best medicine. 

Let us resolve to make laughter a companion in the good times and also in the bad times. Anoint laughter and embellish it every day with love and care, feed its embers with the fuel of passion and belief, give laughter a free hand in our daily lives and help it to pull us out of every situation that we are unable to comprehend; for like the famous poet Robert Frost said:

“If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.” 

Few Quotes about laughter and its healing power

“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” 
- Voltaire

“A good laugh is a mighty good thing, a rather too scarce a good thing. “
- Herman Melville 

“I will look for the flowers by the side of the road; I will laugh and love and be strong. I will try to lighten another’s load this day as I fare along.”
- Mary S Edgar 

“As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul.”
- Jewish Proverb 

“At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.” 
- Jean Houston 

“If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you’re old.”
- Edgar Watson Howe 

“He who laughs, lasts!”
- Mary Pettibone Poole 

“Laugh my friend, for laughter ignites a fire within the pit of your belly and awakens your being.” 
- Stella Mccartney