Laughter Cures

There is something curative about laughter. There are the hee haws that men do with other men. It avoids real conversation. This kind of laughing can be heard on the golf links and especially in the clubhouse after the eighteenth. Then we have the giggling female of the bar kind who tinkle away while batting false eyelashes and protruding plastics. This kind either drives away the prey or attracts it. The latter usually buy the gal a beer simply to stop the din. We have the heeh heeh of the sewing circle or knitting club who have needles in their teeth. Brave ladies and very few, to date, have swallowed their tools. Of course, the book club has its own special brand of heh heh rising to haah haah as the evening pages ebb and the wine bottles empty. I love the wedding har de hars when the mandatory speeches, chicken and fish have been consumed and the much anticipated bad dancing begins. It's a chance for a squeeze and chuckle with the babe or hunk you eyed in the church awhile ago. My favorite is the baby laugh, the only genuine one, when dad blows a burble on baby's tum tum or mommy makes silly faces. The baby laugh is the pure one, the one that makes everyone else laugh. One laugh that is born for no reason at all is when the audience, excited by the guy holding the sign that says "laughter and applause",  pops up during the performance. The bleachers and I don't mean the ones you sit on, but the costly mouthful of caps and crowns that defy stage lights with whiter than white choppers to widen to let out a kind of laughter that no one feels and the jokes aren't funny but they can't stop the moment from happening. There is bad laughter and that's the sort that emanates from the corners of the teenaged adult mouth on hearing naughty jokes that really aren't nice, but one has to do something to hide the embarrassment of the stupidity and continue to be one of the group. A laugh that feels good is the one that issues forth when you are alone watching television or reading a book and something genuinely hillarious happens. It kind of explodes in the most natural way like the letting out of carbon dioxide after broccoli for dinner. All natural, no additives. Yes, there is laughter and they say it is good for what ails you. At the hospice they have shelves of humorous movies to accommodate the theory that laughter is the best medicine. Unfortunately, there,  it doesn't cure anything but it makes everything feel better.  My dentist who used to have laughing gas, now has television in the ceiling. He let's me watch old Seinfelds while prowling around in my mouth. Ever tried laughing while having a root canal? A hated laughter even by the user is the guilt-inspiring kind while watching programs that show someone flying through the air after a close encounter with a banana peel. It isn't funny. But laugh we do. I am sure there are other laughs, but that last one is the best. Ha ha ha ha ha.