On January 30th, 1962, an all-girls boarding school in Kashasha, Tanganyika, witnessed one of the oddest types of mass hysteria ever recorded in human history: The Laughter Epidemic. This epidemic, ...

My husband, Don, likes to say that he needs to laugh every day (but only cry once or twice a year). I appreciate and admire his good nature, and I’m sure his ability to see the humor in life helps him ...

When I was little, I tended to fall into bouts of uncontrollable laughter. Basically, once I started laughing, I found it very difficult to stop. The problem was particularly acute in contexts where I ...

Matilda, Roald Dahl’s unnaturally brillant and well-read little girl, who is lighting up the London theatre this week – reviews are embargoed until Friday – is asked by her teacher, Miss Honey, which ...

Imagine if every time you cried you burst into hysterical laughter - this is the problem that Paul Pugh lives with every day. On a cold night in January 2007, Pugh, now 38, was enjoying a night out ...

Laughter is an everyday reminder that we humans are animals. In fact, when recorded laughter is slowed down, listeners can’t tell whether the sound is from a person or an animal. We throw our heads ...