John Cleese visits Laughing Club in India

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, April 28, 2008 11:40 AM | permalink

Actor John Cleese went to India to visit a doctor who has started a laughing club. The people meet each morning and do silly things to make each other laugh. Laughter has many health benefits, says the doctor. I believe it.

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Laughter yoga
• Laughing yogi video

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Burns! , April 28, 2008 12:06 PM

How can you help but laugh at that? I feel better already.

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#2 posted by zuzu

, April 28, 2008 12:08 PM

I like that John Cleese mentioned that this experiment in laughter hopefully benefits not just the prisoners but also the prison staff. Reminiscent of the Stanford experiment, we must not forget the effect of a cage on both the captive and the captor.

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#3 posted by MMG , April 28, 2008 12:19 PM

I love to laugh and I love Indian food. Guess I know where I need to go for my next vacation.

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#4 posted by WWEBoing , April 28, 2008 12:31 PM

rlly rlly stpd. T mch tm n thr hnds.

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#5 posted by Agent 86 , April 28, 2008 12:40 PM

I'm sure that's what we look like to little babies. F-ing scary.

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#6 posted by tyrsalvia , April 28, 2008 12:42 PM

I've been to a laughter circle. There's a group that goes around doing this, training people to lead laughter circles. It's really wonderful. Not something I'd do as a hobby, but it's very relaxing and de-stressing.

Check them out:

http://worldlaughtertour.com/

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#7 posted by Maddy , April 28, 2008 12:45 PM

maybe they can hire the comedy instructor from Borat

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#8 posted by NidSquid , April 28, 2008 2:08 PM

That was great.

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#9 posted by LSK , April 28, 2008 2:22 PM

Ho, ho, ha ha ha! Ho, ho, ha ha ha!

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#10 posted by Supurcell , April 28, 2008 3:19 PM

This is from the BBC documentary "The Human Face". It's one of my favorite documentaries.

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#11 posted by Seth Goldin

, May 1, 2008 11:04 AM

The social effects are certainly fascinating, laughter being "a force for democracy." There may be positive physiological effects as well, but any claims from any kind of product or remedy that claims to "boost the immune system" is pseudoscientific garbage.

What's also cool is that I think fake laughter can quickly turn into genuine laughter, but they didn't mention that.