Evil Laughter

Evil Laughter. It’s a perversion of the real thing.

I attended a recent production of Porgy and Bess and was struck by how often I heard evil laughter. Over and over again, someone laughing at someone else’s pain. Even the honorable Porgy laughed when he killed a man, amazed at his own success eliminating a piece of evil in the world. Though perhaps that was a bit of nervous laughter.

Sportin’ Life, the pimp and lowest of the low, laughed the most. Crown too, the 2^nd most evil character in this community of African Americans in the South in the early 1900’s. They did it every time they succeeded in overpowering another.

It was fitting that the pimp, the one with a twisted association with sex, would also have a twisted association with joy and laughter.

Laughter can swing both ways. When someone is lost, their laughter and subsequently their joy, comes from hurting another. Beware when you hear it for this is a very disconnected human being.

Dark humor is just another form of evil laughter. We see it in comedy all the time. But that doesn’t make it any less alarming.

Laughter is an expression of love. If you are laughing at something dark, you’ve gotten it twisted.

Sometimes it might come out when there’s pent-up rage. Evil laughter is a passive aggressive way to express anger. “It’s just a joke.” Hidden cruelty.

The ridicule usually comes from unresolved pain. No doubt from someone having been ridiculed in their past. How can he pass it on to you? He can try to do it with evil, misplaced laughter.

Laughter belongs in a place of wholeness for it is a connection to our deepest selves.

Evil laughter is a pitiful expression of a lost human being.

In entertainment, it’s always the villain who laughs the evil laugh.

Photo: Wikimedia: Porgy & Bess

Laughing Through Divorce

My relationship of many years ended recently. It’s been very hard. Lots of crying, not nearly enough laughing.

I tried joining a divorce support group. Big mistake. Though the support was wonderful, the pain in listening to other people’s pain was overwhelming. So much focus on the one they lost. No room for even a few chuckles, though I tried to bring them in.

I once had a group of widows coming to the laughter club. They drove down from Marysville to Seattle, initially telling me, “We’ve done enough crying, we’re ready to laugh.” I thought it was beautiful.

Though it hasn’t been that long for me, I feel the same. I’m sure no one in any of my laughter programs would know how much pain my heart is in, for they are right, when I lead a laughter yoga session, it’s all joy and there is no pain. “You can’t hold a negative thought in your head and laugh at the same time.” And when it’s over and the sadness returns, I’m fortified with all that laughter.

Laughter heals. Slowly. It always does.

Photo: Stock.xchnge

Fred Allen

“It’s bad to suppress your laughter because if you do, it goes down and spreads your hips.”

Fred Allen, early radio and television comedian

Photo: Wikimedia: Fred Allen

Universal Spirituality

I love laughter because it’s a universal spirituality. It has no beliefs, no dogma, no right and wrong, no ministers, no membership dues, no church….

Yet it uplifts us unlike anything else. In an instant it raises our vibration. It heals us and makes us better people. We don’t even have to have any thoughts attached to it. Nor a theory. It just happens. And we evolve. Without even trying we become better people.

It’s something we can all agree on – atheist and fundamentalist and everyone in between. Everyone loves to laugh. It brings us together on a higher level.

A universal spirituality for sure.

Photo: Stock.xchnge

Thich Nhat Hanh

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile. But sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo: Stock.xchnge

Good News

Ode Magazine reports the good news of the world. Good news is not exactly laughter. Yet to immerse yourself in the positive side of life, enhances the flow of laughter. It’s a laughter inducing way to live.

Though our mainstream media would never let you know, there is an abundance of good happening in our world. In the current issue I have read about a local Seattle woman who grows her own dinners; A compact collapsible solar panel created by a young man who trekked to the Himalayas and found the locals spending half a day gathering firewood in order to cook dinner. Inspired to find a solution he created a solar device that resembles an upside-down open umbrella and generates enough energy for varied uses; Or five wind turbines in a small town in Germany that provide low-cost electricity to the residents; Or the surprising economic growth in Africa; etc. etc. etc.

Recently they birthed Odewire, an iphone/ipad app that reports the good news on a continual basis.

There’s lots of be happy about in the world if we only looked in that direction; if we only knew about it all.

Ode is dedicated to “intelligent optimists”.

Laughter is like...

“Laughter is like the human body wagging its tail.”

Photo: Stock.xchnge