Laughter

By

Gary Dorman Wiggins

Earthworms have seven hearts.

Small thing—lots of heart.

Cows have four stomachs.

Big thing—lots of appetite.

The antithesis of all suffering is laughter, but animals don’t laugh. Is laughter just as much a sensory gift as sight? If one is tickled, he laughs. This is transmitted through one of the senses, so it can’t be a sense. If you see a funny thing, that too is transmitted through a different sense, and of course, if you hear something funny, you laugh.

Of all the stimulants which excite through palpitation, none leaves quite the same effect as laughter. Why must we be forced to laugh? Why can’t it too be a sense? If I want to see, I open my eyes; to hear, I attune the ears; to feel, I need only to touch. To laugh? You need mood. We need to bottle it.

April 1968