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Theme of Zoom Meeting: Laughter
© 2020
by Richard E. Gordon • Duplication prohibited without author’s permission
rgordon118@tampabay.rr.com • Last updated: 6/5/22
Questions:
Many of the following questions contain links -- underlined words to click on -- words that will take you to related information on the internet. I suggest you try answering each question before checking out a link. And then, if you would like to venture further, explore where the link leads you.
1. Is there something you saw or heard recently that made you laugh?
2. Who is your favorite comedian?
3. How important is it to seek out sources of humor? Can you give a good source for someone to check when she wants to have a good laugh?
4. Consider someone in your personal life – not a professional entertainer – who so often triggered your laughter. What was there about this person that made her/him such a good source of laughter?
5. When might laughter be hurtful?
6. Is the ability to laugh only a human characteristic? Can animals laugh? Can they make you laugh?
7. How can the internet help you increase your opportunities to laugh?
8. Can laughter benefit you both physically and mentally? Another source showing laughing benefits…
9. Under what circumstances might it be worthwhile to force yourself to laugh?
10. Why did humans develop the ability to laugh?
11. Where can you find good sources of laughter?
12. Think of cartoons that caused you to laugh when you were a youngster – say between six and ten years old. Would youngsters today find the shows as funny as you did?
13. Where can you find sources of old laugh-provoking shows?
14. Can you recall an incident where you burst out in laughter even though you did not experience anything funny?
15. How can parents nourish their children’s laughter proclivity? Would there be any benefit in doing so?
16. What value if any do you see in attempting to write your own jokes?
17. Do different cultures have different views of laughter?
18. How can laughter benefit you? Your mental health? Even your physical health?
Quotes
1.
“There is nothing in the world so
irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
―
“If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.” ―
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” ―
4. A good laugh is sunshine in the house. — William Thackeray
5. A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. — Phyllis Diller
6. Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine. — Lord Byron
7. An optimist laughs to forget; a pessimist forgets to laugh. — Tom Nansbury
8. "With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die." – Abraham Lincoln
9. "Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails." – Max Eastman
10. "You cannot be mad at somebody who makes you laugh - it's as simple as that." – Jay Leno
11. The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.—Mark Twain
12. Someone who makes you laugh is a comedian. Someone who makes you think and then laugh is a humorist. -- George Burns