OK, here's the thing: We all hate the sound of our own laughter the way we hate the sound of our own voices. My laughter, for instance, is so grating that last night it woke up a pack of dogs in my apartment building, in what I suspect they thought was a call-and-response gag. But regardless of what your laugh sounds like on the spectrum of "squirrel mating call" to "dog bark," laughter is extremely therapeutic. Laughing helps you make new friends and attract mates, improve your relationships, and basically become a supernova of creativity. More or less, I'm telling you that you need to leave work and go watch Friends on Netflix because it is your civic responsibility not just to yourself but everyone around you.
As you might have noticed from your most prolific knock-down, drag-out giggle-fests with your friends, it's a little bit impossible to hear people's laughter without laughing right back. You have heard the term "contagious laugh," but the concept is actually grounded in science: when you hear people laugh, the your brain communicates to muscles in your face to prepare to laugh as well. Some researchers think that laughter served as a precursor to language, and that the automatic response is conditioned from using it as a communication tool. (Now I'm picturing a bunch of Neanderthals chuckling around their fire and I'm laughing all over again.)
Of course, not all laughs are created equal. Some people just have laughs that are so winning that you can't help but crack up, and power to them, cuz they're making the whole world a better, more ridiculous place to live. If you need some laughspiration, look no further that these gigglers:
1. This compilation of actors breaking character on Saturday Night Live
I don't know why actors are so afraid of "breaking," because it's the BEST.
2. This baby cackling at a dog eating popcorn
Comedy at its finest.
3. This guy laughing at his dog groomed to look like a lion
You might even say he was ~roaring~ with laughter.
4. This questionably high group of buddies who recorded their friend's laughter and played it back for him
This is basically laugh-ception.
5. This guy who laughs just like a cartoon
Skip ahead to the 1:45 mark where the performer literally just mics him because the whole thing is pure gold.
6. These anchors who lose it on air over a story
GET YOURSELVES TOGETHER. (Just kidding, please don't ever change.)
7. Anderson Cooper basically crying from laughing during a live segment
It goes on for like a full minute and it only gets better with every excruciating second that goes by.
8. This couple who sucked helium and then tried to make each other laugh
#RelationshipGoals.
9. This couple who can't stop laughing during their own wedding ceremony
#EvenBetterRelationshipGoals.
10. This compilation of every time Lisa Kudrow bursts out laughing in Friends bloopers
And here I was thinking I'd never find anything I liked more than Friends.
11. These sets of triplet babies laughing together all at once
Going viral is like the main reason to have that many kids simultaneously, right?
12. Craig Ferguson every time he laughs always and forever
Say what you want about other talk show hosts, but none of them would literally slap a camera from laughing so hard.
