Welcome to the 2nd Humormeister's Forum edition

The 'Humor-Laughter' web site continues to increase in popularity. We have gone from 0 pages when we started on November 19, 2007, to 1538 pages visted on March 31, 2008.

April is a special month in 'Humor-Laughter' circles, because April is celebrated as "National Humor Month,"and of course, April 1st is April Fools day, which does not require an explanation.

Because it being National Humor Month, I would like to pose some questions for you to consider. The following questions should provide you with a barometer reading on your 'humor-laughter' status.

• What makes you laugh?
• Who makes you laugh and why?

Dr. Patch Adams, the 'Clown Doctor,'portrayed by actor Robin Williams in the movie "Patch Adams," said it very well when he said, "We have to get people laughing, because:

• it provides balance in peoples' lives
• It helps people to cope better
• it helps them staying well
• it helps the healing process when we need it

Laughter is powerful whether it is for purely personal enjoyment, assisting us in our health and wellness efforts, or in preserving an optimistic and joyful approach to life.

You jeopardize yourself when:

• you laugh only 4 - 6 times a day
• you vaguely remember you had a funny bone, but you can't remember where it is located
• you can't laugh at your own jokes, never mind someone else's

Since laughter is contagious, let's start an epidemic, and maybe if we can find enough support,we can cure the world's ills.

We will be adding more 'Humor-Laughter' topics on the web site in the next few weeks. We are planing on adding:

• Workplace stress relief
• Emergency humor
• Laughter expert
• Laughter therapy

Laughter is contagious - feature article of the month

I am sure that all of us have experienced that when someone walks into a group of laughing people, most of us will join in. As a matter of fact, I have seen people come into a group that was engaged in hearty laughter and these people would start laughing without having a clue what the laughter was all about.

An extreme example of this was the 1962 outbreak of contagious laughter in Tangayika. It began as an isolated fit of laughter in a group of schoolgirls 12 - 18 years old. The laughter fit quickly rose to a laughing epidemic of contagious laughter that lasted 46 days.

To stimulate people to laugh, television producers several decades ago produced laugh tracks which they used with situation comedies. The purpose of the laugh tracks was to stimulate contagious laughter in the viewers.

We were born to laugh. Babies start laughing when they are 10 - 12 weeks old (usually after a good bowel movement). By the time kids are 4 years old, they laugh on the average 400 times a day. Unfortunately, as adults we lose this natural tendency and we are lucky if we average 4 - 6 of laughter a day.

We can't turn the time back to our early childhood, but we would do ourselves a lot of good if we were to increase tha 4 - 6 laughs a day.

Do you have a humerous story, or experience you would like to share? Let us know. We would like to help you share it with others.