It seems that the whole Universe is laughing.
Some say God laughs while we Plan!
And this researcher say animals laugh. "A behavioral biologist at the State University of Campinas, Brazil, she says it's a primitive reflex common to most animals: even rats laugh.
She tells Sophie Petit-Zeman that too little laughter could have serious consequences for our mental, physical and social well-being."

March 2002 - Telegraph

Laughter is a part of human behavior all over the world, and it reduces anxiety and lowers blood pressure

We laugh more frequently than we eat, sing or have sex. So why do we know so little about it? David Derbyshire investigates

A is standing a bar when he hears a voice coming from the peanut bowl. "I really like your tie," it says. "You're smashing, you are. You're really lovely."

Surprised, the man picks up his drink, and walks to his table. Passing the cigarette machine, he hears another voice. "You and your wife are ugly, fat and stupid," the voice says.

The man is baffled and asks the barman what is going on. "I'm so sorry," says the barman. "The peanuts are complimentary but the cigarette machine is out of order."

Some people, when hearing that joke, smile. A collection of 17 muscles around their mouth contorts and their eyes crease up.

Others laugh. They emit a series of short vowel-like notes, each around 75 milliseconds long, repeated at regular intervals 210 milliseconds apart.

It's a peculiar response. But then laughter is a funny business. It's part of human behaviour all over the world, irrespective of culture. It takes place whenever two or three people meet informally, when somebody else strokes our feet, when a four-month-old baby sees a familiar smiling face.

It makes us less stressed, lowers our blood pressure and reduces anxiety. It's more common than sex, eating or singing. And yet it remains one of the least understood aspects of human behaviour.

Next week, Ken Dodd and Dr Richard Wiseman, the psychologist behind Laugh Lab, a mass experiment into what makes people laugh, will present an evening exploring comedy and the psychology of laughter as part of Wrexham Science Festival.

"Comedy should not be over-analysed. It is either funny or it isn't," says Dodd, who has been touring Britain with his marathon stage show for almost 50 years.

"Laughter is a safety valve. For instance, people might come to my shows feeling miserable, but I won't let them out again until they're laughing their heads off. I want them to forget their cares and worries for a couple of hours (at least) and that's what they can do by having a good laugh."

Dodd is one of the greatest experts in what Britain finds funny. At his home in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, he has collected more than 20,000 books on the subject. He travels 100,000 miles a year, using a "giggle map" which tells him what jokes go down well in different areas.

"I was fortunate enough to have comedy heroes who were naturally funny and gifted. Performers like Arthur Askey, Ted Ray, Rob Wilton and Tommy Cooper. There is a difference between those who say funny things and those who say things funny," he says. "It can be measured by reaction: it starts with a titter, progresses to a chuckle and then explodes into uninhibited laughter. There is nothing like a full-blooded belly laugh.

"I think it was Freud who once described humour as being as incongruous as a buckled wheel, but the trouble with Freud is that he never played the old Glasgow Empire on a wet Monday night after both Rangers and Celtic had lost on the previous Saturday."

Matt Pritchett, award-winning cartoonist of The Telegraph, is weary of the analysis of comedy. His cartoons - described as the "instant hit" of comedy - are regarded as the funniest in the business.

"It is said that there are only a few types of jokes - such as incongruities, surprises, exaggerations and slapstick. I think it's so hard to explain what makes a joke so funny and I'm not always the best judge of my own stuff," he says.

"The disadvantage of the cartoon is that you cannot set up a joke like a stand-up comic would. But then, it can be more instant. I suppose what I am doing is trying to see the flippant or absurd side of everyday situations."

Freud saw laughter as a release - as a way of converting latent aggression into something more socially acceptable. A joke sets up a tension that is relieved by laughter. It also explains why people laugh when they are nervous or suddenly relieved.

For the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, laughter was an expression of superiority, "nothing else but a sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly".

Researchers have shown that people laugh more if their boss tells a joke. Someone falling over on a banana skin and getting up is funny. But how much more funny is it when the victim is a policeman or politician?

The philosophers Kant and Schopenhauer both explained humor through incongruity. In the joke "two fish in a tank, one turns to the other and says `do you know how to drive this?' " the humor comes from the incongruity. It is the sudden realization that the word tank is ambiguous that forces the listener to see the sentence from a completely new perspective.

There is, no better medicine--thank you !!!

Laughter is the best medicine....I really believe that.