- Scientists believe laughter in human beings pre-dates speech by millions of years.
- Humans aren't the only creatures which laugh. Scientists have found that Rats laugh if you tickle their necks; and primates make noises which have been interpreted as laughter. KoKo the gorilla, who was famous for communicating in sign language, used to make a "ho ho" sound when someone she liked came to visit. If you hear a parrot laugh, though, keep your distance - in parrots it's a sign of aggression.
- Adults laugh about 15 - 30 times per day, with women laughing slightly more often than men. Babies, however, laugh 300 times a day.
- Some laughter related words - there's a word for the study of laughter and the effects it has on the body - Gelotology, from gelos, the Greek word for laughter.
- The word 'agelastic' means 'without laughter'. There are actually some well known figures in history who are said to have rarely, if ever laughed. Isaac Newton is said to have laughed only once in his life, when someone asked him what was the point of studying Euclid. Stalin, Jonathan Swift, and W.E. Gladstone were allegedly equally humourless. Spinoza, a 17th-century Dutch rationalist and lens grinder, is said only to have laughed when watching Spiders fight to the death.
- Studies of laughter have found that only about 105 of laughs are prompted by jokes. Most people laugh at banal comments made by other people, and a person watching a funny film with other people is 30 times more likely to laugh than someone watching the same film alone. This shows laughter has a function in human social bonding. Also, People laugh more (by almost 50%) when they’re doing the talking than when someone else is talking; and most often at the end of a sentence. People are also more likely to laugh at a comedian they are familiar with than one they've never seen before.
- Why can't you make yourself laugh by tickling yourself? Because your brain knows exactly what your fingers are going to do, so there's no surprise.
- Is there a universally funny joke which would make literally everyone laugh? In a word, no, although it has been theorised that the ideal length for a joke is 103 words. What is pretty much guaranteed to make everyone laugh is showing them a film of someone else trying desperately not to laugh when it would be most inappropriate to do so, such as when reading the news. Would it have worked on Stalin, Spinoza or Isaac Newton? We'll never know.
- The saying goes that laughter is the best medicine. It has been shown to reduce production of the stress hormone cortisol, lower blood sugar, promote blood flow and boost the immune system. 10 to 15 minutes of laughing a day can burn up to 40 calories. There's even laughter yoga, in which people do laughing exercises.
- That said, it can be bad for you, too. Laughing too much has been known to trigger asthma attacks and even heart attacks. Tickling has even been used as a form of torture. There are instances where laughter has literally killed people. Anthony Trollope is said to have died laughing; Cleopatra said her retainer died from laughter after witnessing her husband's death, while Zeuxis, a 5th-century BC Greek painter, is said to have died laughing at one of his own pictures of the goddess Aphrodite – after the old woman who commissioned it insisted on modelling for it. A more modern day example was a man in King's Lynn who died after laughing solidly for 25 minutes while watching an episode of The Goodies. His widow didn't blame the Goodies for his death - she actually wrote and thanked them for making her late husband's last minutes so pleasant.
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