A monthly health column. Or so my mom tells me. There I was, a whirling dervish in pajamas, faithfully bellowing the song's call and response lyrics in my best preschool Peter Noone-ish cockney accent. It always feels good to lose ourselves in uncontrollable fits of giggles. To have our bodies overcome by laughter's instantaneous injection of warmth, comfort and exhaustion.
Laughter is a physiological response to humor that is distinctly human.
It's also a surprisingly complex response, using brain skills similar to that of problem solving. Not to mention flushed faces, various hand and leg gestures, and vocalized sounds ranging from barely audible snickers to neighborhood-rattling roars. It also has some history. Laughter supposedly sprang from the earliest days of human existence as a shared gesture of relief marking the passing danger. It is also an indicator of our comfort with others.