Death from laughter

"Die laughing" redirects here. For other uses, see Die laughing (disambiguation).

Chrysippus allegedly died of laughter after witnessing a donkey eating his figs.

Der Tod des Dichters Pietro Aretino (The Death of the Poet Pietro Aretino ) by Anselm Feuerbach

Death from laughter is a rare 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 the times of ancient Greece to modern times.

Usually, the phrase "dying from laughter" is used as a hyperbole.

Pathophysiology

Laughter is normally harmless. Typically, laughter is controlled by two systems in the brain: an involuntary system that involves the amygdala and a voluntary system that involves the premotor opercular areas. ^[2] 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 affect. ^[3] Asphyxiation caused by laughter leads the body to shut down from the lack of oxygen.

Laughter can cause atonia and collapse ("gelastic syncope"), ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]} which in turn can cause trauma (see also: laughter-induced syncope, cataplexy, and Bezold–Jarisch reflex). Gelastic seizures can be due to focal lesions to the hypothalamus. ^[8] Depending upon the size of the lesion, the emotional lability may be a sign of an acute condition, and not itself the cause of the fatality. Gelastic syncope has also been associated with the cerebellum. ^[9]

Notable cases

• Zeuxis, a 5th-century BC Greek painter, is said to have died laughing at the humorous way in which he painted an old woman. ^[10]
• Chrysippus, also known as "the man who died from laughing at his joke", an influential 3rd-century BC Greek Stoic philosopher, reportedly died of laughter after he saw a donkey eating his fermented figs; he told a slave to give the donkey undiluted wine to wash them down, and then, "having laughed too much, he died" (Diogenes Laërtius 7.185). ^[11]
• In 1410, King Martin of Aragon is said to have died from a combination of indigestion and uncontrollable laughter.^{[ better source needed ] [12]}
• In 1556, Pietro Aretino "is said to have died of suffocation from laughing too much". ^[13]
• In 1660, Thomas Urquhart, the Scottish aristocrat, polymath, and first translator of François Rabelais' writings into English, is said to have died laughing upon hearing that Charles II had taken the throne. ^{[14] [15]}
• 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 as 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 by excessive laughter. ^{[16] [17] [18] [19]}
• During the night of October 30, 1965 in Manila, Philippines, a 24-year-old carpenter 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 in an uncontrollable fit of laughter from which he then fainted; he was brought to the hospital, but died before he could be given medical help. ^{[20] [21]} The book The Big Book of Boy Stuff by Bart King recounts the incident in anecdotal form, where the carpenter was instead told the joke by his friends rather than himself, and "laughed until he cried, collapsed, and then died". ^[22]
• On March 24, 1975, Alex Mitchell, from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching the "Kung Fu Kapers" episode of The Goodies . After 25 minutes of continuous laughter, Mitchell slumped on the sofa and died from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments of life so pleasant. ^{[23] [24] [25] [26]} Diagnosis of his granddaughter in 2012 of having the inheritable long QT syndrome (a heart rhythm abnormality) suggests that Mitchell may have died of a cardiac arrest caused by the same condition. ^[27]
• In 1989, during the initial run of the film A Fish Called Wanda , a 71-year-old Danish audiologist named Ole Bentzen reportedly laughed himself to death. ^{[28] [29] [30]}
• On August 19, 2003, Damnoen Saen-um, 52, an ice cream truck driver in Mueang Phuket district, Thailand, died laughing while asleep. The cause of death was unclear as he was in good health, but doctors said it was likely heart failure. ^{[31] [32] [33]}

In fiction

• "The Three Infernal Jokes", short story in The Last Book of Wonder (1916) by Lord Dunsany, about three jokes "which shall make all who hear them simply die of laughter".
• "The Funniest Joke in the World", episode of British sketch comedy Monty Python's Flying Circus , which revolves around a joke so funny that anybody who hears it promptly laughs themselves to death.
• In the 1988 fantasy comedy film Who Framed Roger Rabbit , the weasels of the Toon Patrol literally die laughing. Judge Doom mentions earlier in the film that this happened to their hyena cousins.
• "The Stand In", episode of American comedy Seinfeld , which features Jerry Seinfeld telling a joke to a hospital patient who then suddenly dies from laughter.
• Infinite Jest (1996), a novel by David Foster Wallace in which the meta-narrative includes a film so entertaining that those who see it lose all interest in anything else, and die.
• The Clean House , a play where dying of laughter is a reoccurring theme.
• "Scott Tenorman Must Die", episode of South Park , which features Kenny McCormick dying from laughing at a humiliating video of Eric Cartman.
• On the television series 1000 Ways to Die , a semi-fictionalized case, based on some of these actual deaths, was dramatized as "way to die" number 302, "Funny Boned", in the season 1 finale "I See Dead People (and They're Cracking Me Up)"; the fictional incident, claimed to take place on January 18/19, 1997, follows a pub patron named Chuck, who enjoys telling and hearing jokes, hearing one particular one so funny he simply could not stop laughing after hearing it, even after leaving the pub and returning the following day; by this time, he had been laughing for over 36 straight hours, and it proved such a strain on his heart that he dropped dead in the pub of a heart attack.
• "Parallel Play" episode of the television series Six Feet Under , a young girl laughs so hard she falls off her bed and breaks her neck while placing prank calls with friends.

See also

• Kuru, also known as "laughing sickness"
• Nitrous oxide, also known as "laughing gas"
• Laughter-induced syncope
• List of unusual deaths
• Paradoxical laughter
• Sardonicism
• Tickle torture

References

1. Inwood, Brad; Gerson, Lloyd P. (2008-09-11). The Stoics Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia. Hackett Publishing. ISBN   978-1-60384-376-8.
2. Wild, Frank (Oct 2003). "Neural correlates of laughter and humour". Brain. 126 (10): 2121–38. doi:10.1093/brain/awg226. PMID   12902310.
3. Gondim FA, Parks BJ, Cruz-Flores S (December 2001). "'Fou rire prodromique' as the presentation of pontine ischaemia secondary to vertebrobasilar stenosis". J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 71 (6): 802–804. doi:10.1136/jnnp.71.6.802. PMC   1737630 . PMID   11723208.
4. Reiss AL, Hoeft F, Tenforde AS, Chen W, Mobbs D, Mignot EJ (2008). Greene E (ed.). "Anomalous hypothalamic responses to humor in cataplexy". PLOS ONE. 3 (5): e2225. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.2225R. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002225 . PMC   2377337 . PMID   18493621.
5. Nishida K, Hirota SK, Tokeshi J (2008). "Laugh syncope as a rare sub-type of the situational syncopes: a case report". J Med Case Rep. 2 (1) 197. doi: 10.1186/1752-1947-2-197 . PMC   2440757 . PMID   18538031.
6. Totah AR, Benbadis SR (January 2002). "Gelastic syncope mistaken for cataplexy". Sleep Med. 3 (1): 77–78. doi:10.1016/S1389-9457(01)00113-7. PMID   14592259.
7. Lo R, Cohen TJ (November 2007). "Laughter-induced syncope: no laughing matter". Am. J. Med. 120 (11): e5. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2006.07.019 . PMID   17976409.
8. Cheung CS, Parrent AG, Burneo JG (December 2007). "Gelastic seizures: not always hypothalamic hamartoma" . Epileptic Disord. 9 (4): 453–458. doi:10.1684/epd.2007.0139. PMID   18077234.
9. Famularo G, Corsi FM, Minisola G, De Simone C, Nicotra GC (August 2007). "Cerebellar tumour presenting with pathological laughter and gelastic syncope". Eur. J. Neurol. 14 (8): 940–943. doi:10.1111/j.1468-1331.2007.01784.x. PMID   17662020. S2CID   10940256.
10. Bark, Julianna (2007–2008). "The Spectacular Self: Jean-Etienne Liotard's Self-Portrait Laughing". North Street Review.
11. Laërtius, Diogenes. Lives, Teachings and Sayings of the Eminent Philosophers, with an English translation by R. D. Hicks (1964–1965). Cambridge, Massachusetts/London: Harvard University Press/W. Heinemann.
12. Morris, Paul N. (October 2000). "Patronage and Piety: Montserrat and the Royal House of Medieval Catalonia-Aragon" (PDF). p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-04.
13. Waterfield, Gordon, ed. First Footsteps in East Africa, (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1966) p. 59 footnote.
14. Brown, Huntington (1968). Rabelais in English Literature. Routledge. p. 126. ISBN   0-7146-2051-3.
15. The History of Scottish Poetry. Edmonston & Douglas. 1861. p.  539, footnote 4.
16. "Laughter causes death". The Argus. October 18, 1920.
17. "Died of Laughter". The Register. Adelaide. October 18, 1920.
18. "Death Follows Laughter". Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative. October 21, 1920.
19. "Died Laughing". The Sydney Stock and Station Journal. October 22, 1920.
20. "Morreu o contador de piadas" [Joke teller dies]. Diario de Noticias (in Portuguese). October 30, 1965.^{[ dead link ]}
21. Kingston Gleaner, Sunday, October 1965, p. 3 (subscription required). "Manila, Oct. 30 - A 24-year-old carpenter died laughing here last night, the police reported. They said the man was telling his friends a joke which was so funny that he could not stop laughing. He laughed until he collapsed. Friends rushed him to a hospital but he was dead." Kingston Gleaner (October 31, 1965)
22. King, Bart (2004-07-15). The Big Book of Boy Stuff. Gibbs Smith. p. 159. ISBN   978-1-4236-1118-9. More recently, a 24-year-old carpenter in the Philippines was told a joke by a friend. The carpenter thought the joke was so funny, he laughed until he cried, collapsed, and then died.
23. "The Last Laugh's on Him". Snopes. 2007-01-19. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
24. Ross, Robert (2000). The Complete Goodies. London: B. T. Batsford.
25. "A Goodies Way to Go – Laughing". Eastern Daily Press. Norwich. 29 March 1975.
26. Staveacre, Tony (1987). Slapstick! The Illustrated Story of Knockabout Comedy. Angus & Robinson.
27. Singh, Anita (21 Jun 2012). "Man who died laughing at Goodies had Long QT syndrome". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
28. Goad, Jim (17 March 2015). "10 People Who Literally Died From Laughter". Thought Catalog. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
29. King, Darryn (2018-07-12). "'Just a Concoction of Nonsense': The Oral History of A Fish Called Wanda". Vanity Fair Blogs. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
30. Puig, Claudia (May 24, 1989). "Movies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 9, 2025.
31. "Thai man dies laughing". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2003-08-22. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
32. "Man laughs to death in sleep". SFGATE. 2003-08-21. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
33. "Thai Man Dies While Laughing in Sleep (NDC)". rec.music.gdead.narkive.com. Retrieved 2024-02-01.

External links

• "Have People Died Laughing?" Snopes.com. 2004.