No matter what the time, the place, the circumstances, generally, it’s good for what ails you.
Laughter.
Seriously!
It can’t hurt, right? Except maybe after a C-section or hernia repair. After all, there’s nothing quite like side-splitting, gut busting, uproarious letting loose.
I say again: Laughter!
Or maybe you prefer a tiny titter from Twitter?
Yesterday I spent a few hours in the company of someone who is – simply stated – a hoot. He makes me smile, snicker, chuckle, giggle and wriggle, rolling on the floor (or any other piece of gravity-secured furniture) laughing. Oh, it does a body (and mind) good!
By the way, not one to pass up an opportunity for a mini-language lesson, care to know a few entertaining expressions for a Laugh Riot en français?
French Expressions for Laughter
Now, now, we won’t be losing our heads. But when we find our funny, we do tend to laugh our asses off in (American) English. Here are a few colorful corresponding (and admirable!) Franco-phrases:
- Rire comme un bossu – To laugh like a hunchback! – in other words, laugh your ass off
- S’amuser comme des petits fous – Laugh like little crazy people, or, laugh your ass off
- Se fondre la rate – Laugh until you melt your spleen (presumably like side-splitting laughter?)
- Se tordre de rire – To convulse with laughter
- Mourir de rire, Crever de rire – To die laughing
- Eclater de rire – To burst out laughing
- Un fou rire – Wild laughter
- MDR (Mort(e) de Rire) – LOL (Lots of Laughter)
Laugh Much?
And your latest laugh track? Your funny friends? Or are you the funny one in the crowd who elicits smirks, quirks, and the perks of a chuckle or a chortle? What makes you laugh?
It’s surprising (and not) how much laughter makes whatever ails you disappear – at least for awhile. So if you’re hankering for a hit of happy, hang out with a friend who has a sense of humor. Indulge in wicked wordplay or playful pranks. Go raunchy, go slapstick, go absurd – whatever is your pleasure.
Because laughter really is the best medicine.
So right, laughter is the best medicine. How close really are tears and laughter? Often crying until we laugh or maybe the other way around?
Belly laughs are the best kind. My best hours of laughter are reminiscing with my sister, my parents or my children. A good funny friend is a luxury indeed. I suppose most times I am the zany crazy one in a crowd. Most recently making my sister laugh a little too hard following a hysterectomy. oops
A funny friend is worth his or her weight in gold, don’t you think, NAS? (These days more than ever… )
My latest chuckle came yesterday from a weird source, I ordered an old transcript of the Clarence Darrow-William Jennings Bryan testimony at the Scopes trial in 1925 (amazing what you can buy for $4+postage online 🙂 ). I expected a dry read but it ended up being quite an entertaining transcript complete with (laughter in the courtroom) annotations reminding me of the showboat nature of the trial. Both of these men were masters of oration and it shows in their verbal fencing that day.
Wow, batticus – that’s one I wouldn’t have thought would be funny. Now you have me very curious! Whatever made you think to order that? Does Amazon have a Wierd-R-Us section?
I read the book Summer for the Gods over the summer which covers the Scopes Trial history and impact. I enjoy the hunt for used books and pamphlets so I was searching for trial related material and found a series of books called Little Blue Books that were published early in the 20th century that recorded many writings of Clarence Darrow (Scope’s lead counsel and a noted agnostic). The Examination of William Jennings Bryan is one of the books, #1424. They are tiny little books, the cheap price makes sense when you pull them out of a small envelope. There you go, a glimpse into the weird world of batticus 🙂
Re B. I love the Little Blue Books and have many of them. Ten cents brought literature to the masses until Hoover and the FBI stopped the presses of Haldeman-Julius. At that point they could be bought by the pound. There was much classic literature, but some of the more interesting items I have are “Sex and Blackmail Rackets Exposed; President Harding’s Illegitimate Daughter; Is the KKK Constructive or Destructive?; How Not to Be a Wallflower; A Modern Analysis of Biblical Sex Scandals; Sexual Perversions in German Monasteries; plus many titles on socialism, atheism and sexuality (rather tame, by today’s standards…or lack thereof). They can be both educational AND hilarious.
Agreed. I am so lucky that I laugh every single day, several times a day. And even in my own company, I can crack myself up! But thankfully, my friends and girls usually are the cause of my laughter.
You crack yourself up… That cracks me up, April! 😉
Kids are indeed a wonderful source of laughter.
Sexual Perversions in German Monasteries is a laugh riot.
Let me add that to my reading list… 😉 Wait… Do I have to speak German?
Laughter is one of life’s best remedies… for mind, body and spirit! 😀 Love your list and translations.
I am lucky because my husband keeps me laughing. We’ve been telling corny jokes to each other for years. They only make us laugh, but hey, that’s good enough.
Le président de la France, Nicolas Sarkozy est en visite officielle en Grande-Bretagne. Sa majesté, la reine Elizabeth II le reçoit avec les honneurs dus à son rang (comme chef d’État). Notamment, elle le conduit à travers Londres dans un royal cabriolet tiré par 4 royaux chevaux blancs.
Soudain, l’un des chevaux lâche un pet aussi odorant que retentissant. La reine, confuse, se tourne vers le président et lui murmure :
– Je suis désolée, vraiment.
– Ne soyez pas désolée, majesté, je croyais que c’était le cheval.
Would it be unladylike of me to guffaw??? (MDR)