I don't know why we love it so much when anyone in front of a live audience loses their composure and bursts out into laughter. Maybe because it shows them for what they really are - human. It's so fascinating to witness a spontaneous surrender to, well, giddiness, and because of good ol' fashioned empathy, we can't help but laugh along.
Every Friday, we gather some funny, deep thinkers to join us on our cultural round table, The Nose, and when we figured out we'd be talking about people losing it on the air, I predicted the gist of what Colin would write for me (a rare thing indeed, as he is far from predictable when it comes to his imagination). When he handed me the script, he gave me an uncommon instruction along the lines of "These are just guidelines, have fun with it." Have fun with it? That's my day job.
I couldn't wait to tackle this one. After a late night, I was running on too few hours of sleep, and I hoped recording this would snap me out of my fog. It didn't take long. In fact, right away, the first burst of laughter was sincere, followed by more laugher at the sheer absurdity of what I was doing. My mind roamed to the invitations I'd always ignored from a local Laughter Yoga session right around the corner from here. Laughter caused more laughter, and the workout was doing a better job at perking me up than the large black coffee I'd been nursing all morning.
I don't know why it's contagious, but I still laugh when I hear it. We all agreed it would be wise to share the absurdity of it, you know, for your health. Enjoy!
(For the record, I'm reconsidering that Laughter Yoga class...)