World Laughter Day 2022

On World Laughter Day, 1st May, we ask you to reflect on what laughter brings to your life. A universally understood expression of amusement which signals an openness to play and have fun - laughter is an innate human behaviour. What makes it more powerful is that it is widely understood, despite differences in languages and cultures.

Laughter is powerful.  It can be a force for good, building and strengthening social bonds and relationships, but it can have a sinister side. Laughing at others, rather than laughing with others can be a sign of unkindness, meanness and superiority. Laughter can be used to signal both inclusion and exclusion and we know that belonging to a group is very important for many people, so exclusion can be extremely hurtful.

I suspect we are not telling you something you don’t know already, but we are often not very aware of how we use laughter. We simply don’t notice it.  

We invite you to think about your use of laughter on 1st May and ask ourselves - am I laughing with or at? If you find yourself laughing with people, then consider what the laughter is adding to this situation. Try pausing and noticing how you feel.  Really notice.  If you feel that laughter is very often contributing positively, then you may want to ask how you might bring more of it into your life. Noticing is the first step to doing something about looking for more laughter.

Why is laughter important? Laughter is a social emotion which, some anthropologists believe evolved so that we humans could live and co-operate in larger groups than was possible before we learned to laugh. Then the size of groups was determined by how many others could be groomed.  Grooming involves physical contact and could be interpreted as caring for another in the group. Laughter is a way of connecting with people, especially when eye contact is involved. When laughter is used kindly then it invites people to connect with each other. 

When people laugh together, they feel closer. Studies have shown that when romantic partners share laughs, they rate their relationships as better and even stay together for longer. Most of us will recognise the power of memories of times of shared laughter.  Sharing an in-joke is a powerful way to connect. 

In her book about the power of fun, Catherine Price says ‘laughter often indicates the moment at which an experience has crossed the line from enjoyable to fun’. On World Laughter Day how about looking for laughter? It’s not about telling jokes, although it can be, more often it’s about sharing silly things, when we are enjoying ourselves, spending time with people we feel close to.  How about thinking hard about what it is we enjoy doing? Then doing it more and noticing when enjoyment crosses the line and becomes fun.

I leave you with this question. When did you last have fun? 

We’ll be looking at laughter and fun in our next free 30-minute webinar on 10th May, so please do join us on 10th May at 1pm.  https://www.laughter-lab.com/webinars

Anna