Unintentionally, some people cause laughter to others through their disfigurement, such as how they dress, dance, or walk. Or the way of telling a story. In my memoir, under the heading Looking At You Looking At Me, I mentioned the laughter we unintentionally share with others, done by our lack of knowledge or innocence of a situation. Of all persons, the worst to hear something that amuses them, or they have observed, without understanding, who will never let go of it and cause your days without peace, are children. A reason the bible says that even in laughter, there is pain. I can recall the days when I was told how pretty my feet were, to one day when my sister Monica looked at my feet and innocently said, “Your feet are ugly,” her tone and facial expression had both of us laughing. The facts are unknown; my laughter was with pain for what I was suffering she did not know. The advice is also: “Better is vexation than laughter, for by the crossness of the face the heart becomes better.” – Ecclesiastes 7:3.
Laughter is usually harmless. However, death may result from several pathologies that deviate from benign laughter. Infarction of the pons and the medulla oblongata in the brain may cause the pseudobulbar effect.[2] Asphyxiation caused by laughter leads the body to shut down from the lack of oxygen.
Death from laughter is a sporadic form of death, usually resulting from either cardiac arrest or asphyxiation, that has itself been caused by a fit of laughter. Though uncommon, death by laughter has been recorded from ancient Greece to modern times.
Believe it or not, steaming down from our history, some have died from laughter.
- Zeuxis, a 5th-century BC Greek painter, is said to have died laughing at the humorous way he painted an older woman. In 1556, Pietro Aretino “is said to have died of suffocation.
- In 1556, Pietro Aretino “is said to have died of suffocation from laughing too much.”
- On October 14, 1920, 56-year-old Arthur Cobcroft, a dog trainer from Loftus Street, Leichhardt, Australia, was reading a five-year-old newspaper and was amused at the prices for some commodities in 1915 compared to 1920. He made a remark to his wife regarding this and burst into laughter, and in the midst of it, he collapsed and died. A doctor surnamed Nixon was called in and stated that the death was due to heart failure brought on by excessive laughter.[15][16][17][18]
To a modern-day account, in Manila, Philippines, on October 30, 1965, a 24-year-old carpenter at night who was well-known for making his companions laugh was telling jokes to his friends. The joke, which the carpenter’s friends told police, was so funny that it caused the carpenter to fall into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, from which he then fainted; he was brought to the hospital but died.
- On March 24, 1975, Alex Mitchell, from King’s Lynn, England, died laughing while watching the “Kung Fu Kapers” episode of The Goodies, featuring a kilt-clad Scotsman with his bagpipes battling a master of the Lancastrian martial art “Eckythump,” who was armed with a black pudding. After 25 minutes of continuous laughter, Mitchell then slumped on the sofa and died from heart failure.
- In 1989, during the initial run of the film A Fish Called Wanda, a 56-year-old Danish audiologist named Ole Bentzen reportedly laughed himself to death.[27][28]
Not only is it written that laughter is good for the soul, but many have confirmed that laughter heals the soul. Some have proven this fact by being healed by laughter as part of their daily therapy. A story of this is in The Uncommon Touch by Tom Xiarpur-An, an investigation of spiritual healing.
I would like to share an account from an old history book for many reasons, the principal one of which still stands today. Do not be misled; God is not one to be mocked; whatever a man sows, he will also reap.
The account tells of when Jehovah was about to take Elijah in a windstorm up to heaven. Elijah proceeded to go from Gilgal to Bethel, and Elisha wanted to go with him, but when he was told to stay back, Elisha told Elijah, “‘As Jehovah is living and as your soul is living, I will not leave you.'” He repeated the statement on three other occasions when they got to Bethel, Jericho, and Jordan. When they got to Jordan, fifty sons of the prophets stood at a distance, and there’s no doubt that some witnessed Elijah’s action as he struck the water with his garment, and the water slowly parted, allowing them to cross the Jordan River on dry ground. Now, as they walked along speaking, approaching was a fiery war chariot that separated between them, and Elijah went ascending in the windstorm to the heavens; all the while, Elisha was seeing it. He was crying out,”‘My Father, my Father, the war chariot, of Israel and his horsemen.'” And he did not see him again. On returning to cross the Jordan River at the shore, he took Elijah’s official garment that had fallen off him and struck the water with the garment. The water separated, so he was able to cross back. When he approached Jericho, those who saw him began to say, ” The spirit of Elijah has settled upon him. People were saying this because of Elijah’s promise to Elisha and his strong belief, so to some, they were actually [witnesses] seeing Elijah’s image. He reported what had happened, but some wanted to look for Elijah, believing that Jehovah’s spirit must have thrown him on a mountaintop or in the valleys. After denying the people’s request to search for him, Elisha became embarrassed and permitted them to search for Elijah. Three days later, they returned and reported that he was nowhere to be found. After some time staying in Jericho, he decided to leave for Bethel. But as he was leaving the town, a group of boys began to jeer him and said, “‘Go up you bald head, go up you bald head.'” So, he turned back and called down evil upon them in the name of Jehovah. Then, out from the woods, two she bears attacked, killing 42 children of their number.
The account shows those that crush the afflicted one, Jehovah himself, will plead their cause, and he will undoubtedly rob of soul those robbing them.
One must imagine oneself in Elisha’s shoes. The account never says what torment he endured in Jericho. But the children following him out of the city with their jeering could conclude that he was a laughing stock to some. However, while he lived there, he performed one miracle: turning the contaminated water back into healthy drinking water.
And so it is, by the word of two. Therefore, “If you have become wise, you have become wise in your own behalf; and if you have ridiculed you will bear [it] just you alone.”
- “STORY ACCOUNT TAKEN FROM” 2 Kings, Chapter 2 [23-25]





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