Too much laughter?

Laughter is the best medicine, or so we were led to believe. Defying the old dictum is the emerging theory that excessive laughter is bad, perhaps not for the body and soul of those who laugh but for their neighbours’ peace and well-being.

A stern Mumbai judge has ruled it “isn’t proper to gather outside someone’s house and laugh”, thus putting a spoke in the wheel of a laughing yoga club’s early morning sessions. While one can sympathise with the plight of those who are forced to wake up to loud laughter, the greater fear is that we’re becoming a nation prone to “offendedness”, a term we owe to the dark humour of Salman Rushdie.

“You can’t be mad at someone who makes you laugh,” said a young Jay Leno. He should know: he has made a fortune out of a humorous television talk show. But the Mumbai police, not known for its sense of humour, has now been asked to deal with the problem of loud and vigorous spells of laughter.

Group therapy laughter, though, shouldn’t be condemned outright: man is, after all, distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. To see humour in all this is easy enough if we are far removed from the force of collective laughter at decibel levels that raise hackles. The Talmud says: “Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion.” It’s best to conclude: “Do laugh, but don’t expect all the world to laugh with you.”

Courtesy : Asian Age