How to Laugh Perfectly

Laughter really may be the best medicine. It provides a vigorous workout to tighten your stomach and strengthen your heart, and regular laughing may boost your immune system. Leading a busy, serious life, however, can make laughing more the exception than the rule. If you want to live a happy, healthy, joy-filled life, you need to learn to laugh. Read below the jump to learn to make laughter part of your life or get more specific advice by checking out the sections listed above.

Smile more. Studies have shown that people laugh harder while holding a straw in their teeth, rather than holding a straw in their lips. This is because your body responds subconsciously to the sensation of smiling and assumes laughter will come. If you're ready to start laughing more, smiling more will trick your body into it.^[1]

Many people's resting face is a kind of scowl. Train yourself to smile as you're working, jogging, and even while you're concentrating reading a book. Make a nice smile your go-to face.
As you're walking to work or to the bus, make a point of smiling at each stranger you pass on your way. It's a good way to practice and get ready for laughing, and it's also polite.

Surround yourself with people who make you laugh. You're all ready for a fun night with friends and your college roommate's high school friend decides to start complaining about work. If you're feeling down in the dumps and having trouble learning to laugh, it'll be worse if you're surrounding yourself with "Debbie Downers." Instead of socializing with people who bring you down, hang out with your friends that are always cutting up and making you laugh.

Take control of bad group conversations. If you're in a group of complainers, change the subject. If everyone's talking about things they don't like, talk about things you do like. People tend to spiral and follow suit, so one person can bring the collective laughter down several notches. Bring it back up by asking a silly question or telling a light-hearted story.
You don't have to dump unfunny friends, but make a point of seeking out new friends who make you laugh and who are ready to laugh. When you're around them, you'll be ready to laugh too.

Watch funny movies and TV programs. Even if your taste runs more to drama or horror, take a break from your usual habits and watch something with Will Ferrell in it. Find the things that make you laugh the hardest and check spend time laughing instead of thinking hard about a plot or being depressed by a documentary.

If modern comedies don't do it for you, check out the Jokers of yore. Watch Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor cut up together, or check out one of Mel Brooks’ brilliant parodies. “The Golden Girls” and “Seinfeld” are always hysterical. Go back even farther and check out “All In the Family”, “I Love Lucy”, “The Honeymooners”, the Marx Brothers, Abbott & Costello, and Buster Keaton to get some sense of the grandparents of comedy.
It doesn't matter how old you are: Tom & Jerry is funny. Pour a bowl of sugary cereal and recreate the Saturday mornings of childhood.

Switch off the news. It's harder to laugh if you start every day by listening to a catalogue of atrocities and economic disparity on NPR. Instead, download comedy podcasts or listen to humorous radio programs and get your news fix by reading the paper later in the day.

If you still want a dose of the news but leavened by some humor, checking out the Jon Stewart can keep you (almost) just as informed, but also in a much lighter way.
If you're a newspaper addict, start with the funnies and the human interest stories before you get too deep into the depressing stuff. Switch back and forth to keep your mood light. Don't overdose on darkness.