Humor: a list to laugh for

 Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

 W.C. Fields

Feeling under the weather?  You might want to try a chuckle or two.  Recent studies show that laughter cures everything.

Maybe not quite everything, but it sure is healthy.  Laughter increases the release of endorphins in our bodies, helping us feel warm emotion and diminishing pain.  It also seems to increase blood oxygenation, strengthen the immune system, and lower blood pressure, blood sugar, and cortisol levels.  Some specialists even recommend laughing for weight loss.  It raises the heart rate, making it a “mild aerobic exercise,” and one minute of laughing burns… well, you’d have to laugh for twelve hours to lose one pound.  Not the quickest way to slim the waist, but it’s an enormously fun way to do it.

With the understanding that you’re medically cleared by your doctor before performing any of these tasks, here’s a list of “laughter-provoking” activities.

1. Read comics, like Farside
2. Watch funny movies, like Young Frankenstein
3. Do a Google search for “do a barrel roll”
4. Watch old Monty Python reruns
5. Learn how to beat-box
6. Ask Siri to do a beatbox for you
7. Sing out loud when alone
8. Check out these funny banned commercials
9. Watch stand-up comedy
10. Talk to your pet
11. Ask Siri to divide 0 by 0
12. Make a short comedy flick with a friend using your iPhone camera
13. Make a short horror film with a friend using your iPhone camera
14. Type “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” into Google
15. Ask Siri, “What does the fox say?”
16. Read the Funnies
17. Look for nasty jokes on the internet
18. Ask Siri what’s the answer to the universe
19. Catch up on fake news with the Onion News Network (see Facebook)
20. Listen to something funny on NPR, like Car Talk
21. Talk to inanimate objects for the fun of it (like your computer or car, preferably when alone)
22. Hang out with a little kid who likes to laugh
23. Hang out with anybody who likes to laugh
24. Google “Atari breakout”
25. Have a water balloon fight
26. Ask Siri what a joke is
27. Look up “funny pictures” in a search engine
28. Look up “funny pictures” on Pinterest
29. Search “funny videos” or “cute videos” in YouTube
30. Download a pet kitten onto your iPhone (Talking Tom)
31. Ask Siri where to hide the body
32. (Do #31, and wait for someone near you to say, “what body?”)
33. Text “I hid the body” to a friend or random number
34. Follow funny people on Twitter
35. Do cartwheels, or try to do them
36. Type “flip a coin” or “roll a die” into Google search engine
37. Egosurf (search yourself online)
38. Make your iPhone pics dance and sing with an app like Ifunface.
39. Go to a burlesque play
40. Call Domino’s and ask for the number for Pizza Hut
41. Ask Siri what she looks like
42. Start a scrapbook of funny things your family say or do
43. Watch the Comedy Channel
44. If you find English-gone-wrong funny, check out Engrish.com
45. Ask Siri to tell you a story
46. Keep a running log of good jokes to tell others
47. Control a 3-D dragon using the phone app Dragon Detector
48. Draw cartoons
49. Learn how to draw cartoons
50. Buy a funny-looking fish
51. Visit the “humor” section of a bookstore and read something
52. Play the Charades-like phone app HeadsUp with friends
53. Ask Siri, “What’s your favorite app?”
54. Go watch penguins at the zoo
55. Go to a circus
56. Tell Siri the line, “I see a little silhouetto of a man…”

What do you think?  Is there anything worthwhile that I missed?  If so, add your ideas in the comment section below.  Until then, happy laughing!

“Humor is just another defense against the universe.” – Mel Brooks

“Some jokes are less agreeable than others.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe