Laughter

thumb|A child in [[Laos laughing|upright=.97]] Audio of a woman laughing|thumb|right|upright=.97

thumb|Detail of the Mona Lisa, who is known for her smilethumb|A smiling child A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses delight, sociability, happiness, joy, or amusement. It is distinct from a similar but usually involuntary expression of anxiety known as a grimace. Although cross-cultural studies have shown that smiling is a means of communication throughout the world, there are large differe

thumb|Use of "lol" in a conversation LOL, or lol, is an acronym for "laughing out loud", and a popular element of Internet slang, which can be used to indicate amusement, irony, or double meanings. It was first used almost exclusively on Usenet, but has since become widespread in other forms of computer-mediated communication and even face-to-face communication. It is one of many acronyms for expressing bodily reactions, in particular laughter, as text, including acronyms for more emphatic expressions of laughter such as LMAO ("laughing my ass off") and ROFL or ROTFL ("rolling on the floor lau

cause of death

world day

Modern exercise involving prolonged voluntary laughter

fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm

separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter

thumb|Two girls laughing Gelotology (from the Greek gelos "laughter") is the study of laughter and its effects on the body, from a psychological and physiological perspective. Its proponents often advocate induction of laughter on therapeutic grounds in alternative medicine. The field of study was pioneered by William F. Fry of Stanford University.

1962 outbreak of mass hysteria

brand of processed cheese products made by Fromageries Bel since 1865

spasm of the facial muscles

emoji featuring a jovial face laughing, while also crying out tears

Gelotophobia is a fear of being laughed at, a type of social phobia. While most people do not like being laughed at, in his clinical observations, German psychotherapist and psychoanalyst Michael Titze (1996) discovered that some of his patients seemed to be primarily worried about being laughed at. They tended to scan their environment for signs of laughter and ridicule. Furthermore, they reported that they had the impression of being ridiculous themselves. Additionally, Titze observed a specific movement pattern among them when they thought they were being laughed at—awkward, wooden movement

stock manic laughter by a villain in fiction

collection of three essays by Henri Bergson

painting by Francisco de Goya

overview of laughter in animals

personification of laughter in Greek mythology

Gelotophilia is the joy of being laughed at. Gelotophiles are people who actively seek and establish situations in which others may laugh at them. They gain joy from these situations and do not feel embarrassed. Gelotophiles speak frankly about misfortunes and mishaps but also about situations in which they acted stupidly or produced something that was involuntarily funny. Typically, they would not mind if they were caught on camera while something funny (yet potentially embarrassing) happened to them and this was sent to a TV program that shows such clips or if it was uploaded to websites suc

Russian folk fairy tale

Peruonto is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

Katagelasticism is a psychological condition in which a person excessively enjoys mocking others. Katagelasticists actively seek and establish situations in which they can laugh at others (at the expense of these people). There is a broad variety of things that katagelasticists would do—starting from harmless pranks or word plays to truly embarrassing and even harmful, mean-spirited jokes. They would be of the opinion that mocking others is part of the daily life and if others do not like being laughed at, they should just fight back. For katagelasticists, it is fun mocking others and there is

rare type of seizure that involves a sudden burst of energy, usually in the form of laughing or crying