Turns Out Laughing Can Be Good for Your Health

In a review of this summer’s The Naked Gun, critic Brian Tallarico pointed to the elephant in the room when watching a comedy film released on the big screen. “Remember when people paid to laugh in unison at a big screen? Yeah, I barely do too,” Tallarico wrote. The release of the aforementioned legasequel sparked plenty of discussion on what is lost when watching comedy becomes a homebound affair, but there’s another aspect to consider: maybe that also means negative consequences for our health.

Writing at the Associated Press, Albert Stumm explored the growing evidence that the physical act of laughing has health benefits. University of Pennsylvania cardiologist Dr. Michael Miller offered Stumm advice where he compared laughter to exercise: “Belly laugh at least two to five days a week.” Dr. Miller went on to discuss the role that laughter can play in deploying endorphins, which can reduce the risk of heart disease and act to reduce pain.

Laughter can come from watching a funny movie or television show, but it can also be simulated. The AP’s article also covers the discipline of laughter yoga, which is exactly what it sounds like. (A Mayo Clinic video released in 2023 includes some pointers.) In a conversation with The Guardian, Dr. Madan Kataria discussed some of the health benefits of laughter yoga. “It reduces stress. It makes your immune system stronger and keeps your mind positive!” Dr. Kataria said.

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As The Guardian‘s Mattha Busby observed in 2022, the idea of using laughter as a health remedy is far from a recent development. Dr. Katarina has explored laughter yoga since the mid-1990s, and Busby points to the work done by Dr. William Fry in the field of gelotology — the study of laughter, essentially — in the 1960s. There are plenty of good reasons to laugh, in other words, from the pleasure of watching something funny to the ensuing mental and physical health benefits. Laughter may not be the best medicine, but it certainly has its place in that field.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…