Bob's Eye View Blog

Laughter clubs continue to sprout up all across America - from California to the New York Island, from the red-head forests to the Gulf Stream bottled waters.  These laughter clubs are part of a movement that was started several years ago by Dr. Steven Wilson, a psychologist in Columbus, Ohio.

In July 2000, Dr. Wilson and a group of health professionals (none of whom I presume sat on the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council), formed the World Laughter Tour, not to be confused with the World Wrestling Federation.

The stated purpose of the tour was to help others improve their physical and mental health through systematic laughter.  Dr. Wilson (wasn't he the next door neighbor of Dennis the Menace?) studied with Dr. Madan Kataria, an Indian physician credited with starting laughing clubs in Bombay in 1995.  There was one subtle difference between Dr. Kataria and Dr. Wilson.  Dr. Wilson laughed all the way to an American bank, while Dr. Kataria laughed all the way to an Indian bank.

The evidence seems to suggest that laughter may help fight heart disease.  A few years back, there was a study of 300 adults by Dr. Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology and Indigestion Due To The Consumption Of 26.3 Million Hot Dogs, located at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The study asked each participant how he or she would react to certain social situations, such as having a drink spilled on them.  The participants with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh and see humor in those situations than the healthy participants. 

I asked 49 people waiting for treatment in the emergency room of Alka-Seltzer Hospital the following question:

Which drink would you least like to have spilled on you while undergoing open-heart surgery?

17 people said diet Coke

12 people said a vanilla milkshake

11 people said vodka

9 people had no opinion

If laughter is innate, why do we need people to show us how to do it?  The simple answer is, and follow me closely on this, most people are idiots.

Tomorrow I will give you some tips on how to put laughter in your life.

See you tomorrow.