Tips to Improve Your Weekly Laugh Quotient

[The following are suggestions to increase the amount of laughter that you produce in any given week, and the quality of that laughter.]

1. Buy one of those big bouncy balls, you know the ones that are sometimes used for exercise (but mostly just used for sitting and bouncing up and down). Since humans are imperfect, and things that can go wrong often will, trying to sit on one of these exercise balls usually winds up being a perfect example of the humor inherent in slapstick. My family owns one of these exercise balls, and it pays off everyday as I fall off of it and hit random pieces of furniture. If you’re extremely uncoordinated, you might even manage to create new acrobatic stunts as you fall to the floor. Really, a giant bouncy ball is guaranteed to provide humor and laughter.


2. Hang out with/listen to young children. They really do say the darndest things.

3. Dance like no one’s watching. Or better yet, actually dance where no one is watching. The best way to do this is go to a room by yourself, preferably one with a large mirror, turn up some loud tunes with a really good beat, shout your own version of the lyrics really enthusiastically with no sense of pitch, and jump up and down like a crazy person. Now this whole thing doesn’t really work unless you really dance like no one’s watching; don’t pretend you’re at a club, or a school dance, this works only when you’re trying to impress no one. If you follow these simple guidelines, you will definitely laugh at yourself- I always do. Actually, everyone laughs at me when I dance so…well, try it anyway.


4. Read Bossypants. It’s one of those books that when you’re reading in a public place you try not to laugh out loud and you end up making a strangled sound in your throat, and then you kind of snort and you end up rocking back and forth in the corner of some small café with your hand over your nose and mouth to prevent any further awkward sounds. So if the book doesn’t get you, your awful attempt at withholding laughter will.


5. Find that time in the day when you, your friends, or your family members, start to lose it. This is known as “Laughter Delirium.” Everyone has a time or a place, or a combination (for example, every time my family goes out to dinner), where suddenly everything becomes funny. Even the smallest pun or noise suggestive of gas will set everyone a-laughing. You need to take advantage of this time. Monopolize it. Get as much laughter out of this semi-febrile state as possible. Usually this Laughter Delirium ends as someone, clearly not experiencing the same laughter-euphoria that you are, tells you to quiet down and stop your shrill laughter Kimberly! Ok, that part’s just because of my over-the-top Amy Poehler style cackle, but you get the drift. After you lose the momentum of this laugh, you can still reminisce about the things that happened during your laugh-high, but it’s hard to recreate the feeling. So find this moment, wherever it may be for you and your companions, and use it to increase your overall laughter.