While sitting around the lunch table in tenth grade my friend Mike accidentally squirted himself in the face with a juice box. He thought it was empty and squeezed the daylights out of the thing, causing streams of apple juice to just drench him completely. His hair soaked, his eyebrows dripping, his mouth slowly and painfully dropped into a Perfect O of Shock while everybody around him just rolled with laughter.
For years after that, whenever that crystal-clear image of Mike’s sticky, juicy, and surprised face suddenly popped into my head, I burst out laughing. I just couldn’t help it. I had a Laugh Echo.
Yes, The Laugh Echo is when you laugh out loud after suddenly remembering something funny that happened a while ago. It’s a random and hilarious event that can occur with family, with friends or — for bonus points — by yourself in a crowded public place.
Now according to our egghead pals at Wikipedia, laughing is great for us. Yes, it helps protect our heart muscles, lowers our blood sugar after a meal, helps us sleep, juices up our antibodies and blood flow, and gives us mini cardio workouts throughout the day. Honestly, have you ever seen babies just laughing uncontrollably for no reason? They know the score and are probably just remembering something funny that happened in the womb. Folks, it’s like I always say: We can learn much from The Baby.
So next time you let out a big Laugh Echo in public, just love it lots. Because life’s too short, my friends. Let’s squeeze in as many laughs as we can get. Then at the end, when we’re old and gray, when our bones are brittle and our hair is hay, how will it feel when we look each other straight in the eyes and just burst out laughing?
I think we both know the answer to that.
AWESOME!
33 Comments
December 31, 2008 at 2:46 am
yes! yes!
lately Laugh Echoes have been hitting me on the train more and more often, but i think anyone who witnesses this thinks there’s just something funny playin in my headphones : (
but what a beautiful post! from the womb to the brittle bones, full circle, wonderful : ))) i admit i shed a (happy) tear!
December 31, 2008 at 11:59 am
I had a laugh echo just a few nights ago as my wife and I were listening to my father’s Christmas Dinner Prayer. He was going on and on, reading from a dusty old prayer book, and I thought back to damn near 20 years ago. My grandfather Ed’s prayers were legendarily long and drawn out. He’d go on a tangent about starving children in some godforsaken 3rd world country nobody except him cared about. We’re talking 30 minute prayers. “And bless all the children in Bangladesh” blah blah blah. There was something about Dad’s ridiculous prayer and remembering Grandaddy’s that had me snickering about 5 minutes in. Only my wife noticed. I hope.
Thanks for mentioning that. Brought back some fond memories for me. Happy New Year Neil!
December 31, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Love this post! It’s so cute and sweet. Especially the baby. We can, indeed, learn much from the baby.
Former Dave, you made me think of think of times when my sister and I used to have major laugh echos in church! We’d get the stink eye from our dad. Sometimes we’d get laugh echos from remembering the previous stink eye.
December 31, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Urban Dictionary that isht.
December 31, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Oh My that is true but I never knew it was called that
December 31, 2008 at 7:57 pm
These ‘laugh echos’ are no good when done in an academic class; for instance, a large lecture with 400 people.
When one laughs while the professor is speaking with seemingly no provocation,well, his or her neighbors in the lecture think you may be weird.
November 23, 2009 at 1:09 pm
ohh so very true. unfortunately i feel as though i do that all too often.
May 2, 2010 at 1:55 pm
ditto in church!
December 31, 2008 at 9:15 pm
That is so awesome, wonderful post! Sometimes I will just see or hear something and and a silly memory will just pop into my mind…..
license plates from Ohio do it to me all the time…bio father used to miss the Jonstown PA exit every time, and he would blurt out, “We are in F-ing Ohio again!” So every time I see an Ohio tag, I wonder if they are from that quaint little border town with the dirty name! :>
Wishing you all peace, love, health, and happiness in 2009.
March 2, 2010 at 11:02 am
I was in a meeting one time, sitting up in the front. While the VP droned on and on, I started doing word play with names. I changed each letter to the one above – A became B, C became D, etc. I worked with a Roxanne, and her name translated to Spyboof. Her last name was even funnier and the combination gave me a serious case of the giggles. Right there in the front row. I have thought of that often, and now I have a name for it. Thanks.
January 4, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Laugh yoga. Hilarious!
June 5, 2010 at 4:49 am
OMG XD HILARIOUS! i was cracking up 10 seconds in. thank you for this laugh yoga session ;P
January 6, 2009 at 10:14 pm
your laugh echo is contagious. I laughed just envisioning the apple juice incident.
March 21, 2009 at 8:39 pm
XD so did i!
being easily amused should be on this list
January 8, 2009 at 6:30 pm
That laughing baby kills me. Sweetest face. Laugh echoes happen to me at least a few times a day either on the subway or here at my desk at work. People look at me oddly but I don’t really mind.
Maybe it’s just me and I’m a terrible story teller, but whenever I try to relay what I’m finding funny at the moment, it’s never really that funny to other people…and then that makes me laugh more :)
January 10, 2009 at 3:43 am
I got an echo laugh the other day.
I was trying to sleep when I broke out into laughter at this thing that my friend said almost six months ago. The funny thing is it wasn’t a very funny thing to say but I went into a laughing fit when she said it and another laughing fit when I remembered it.
January 17, 2009 at 4:19 am
Truly Awesome! All your posts! You really bring out the little pleasures in life that make it so beautiful!
January 23, 2009 at 12:09 am
Thank you for giving this phenomenon a name. I never knew what to call these, and they happen to me all the time – when I’m alone, with friends; trying to go to sleep, traveling…. the shower O.o.
I’ve learned to embrace them when they attack in public. I’d encourage the rest of the world to do the same – and then maybe they won’t seem so weird!
March 21, 2009 at 8:40 pm
oh so very awesome!
March 24, 2009 at 1:57 am
[...] #862 Le rire écho [...]
April 14, 2010 at 7:16 pm
We call these After-laughs.
April 19, 2010 at 6:29 pm
My oldest daughter took a picture for her Costco ID and showed it to me and told me she looked just like John Cleese. She did, too. In an earlier ID, she looked just like another Python, can’t remember which. But I swear if I’m lying in my coffin, and happen to think of her handing me that ID and saying “Yes, just doing it now, Deah,” I will start laughing like a crazy person.
April 24, 2010 at 3:48 pm
I usually played goalie when we shoveled the pond for pick-up hockey. Once, for some reason I was out chasing down a puck and the opposite goal was empty so I tried a rink-long shot and ended up doing a somersault half-flip on the ice. I can’t get the picture out of my mind of the other guys literally laughing so hard they couldn’t stand up any more. This was 40 yrs ago and it still brings me to tears thinking about it.
May 17, 2010 at 10:13 am
Oh, Terry, that made me laugh just imagining it. And it reminded me of a major laugh-echo of mine — I had to be 14 or 15 and my dad was pumping gas. He put the pump away and went to step over the curb but picked his way foot up too soon and missed the step. He tried so hard to regain his balance, but ended up doing a summersault and rolling right back into a standing position, then continued to walk on to the gas station to pay — and looked around as if to say “I meant to do that”. It was the funniest thing ever and my mom and I still laugh about it to this day!
Thanks for the laugh-echo!
May 22, 2010 at 10:38 pm
omg that baby looks exactly like my cousin Oscar :0
June 5, 2010 at 4:56 am
nawww look at the baby :) but the grandpa… not so much :P LOVE this quote! “They know the score and are probably just remembering something funny that happened in the womb.” i loled.
You know what else is awesome? Laughs that actually ECHO. This is the only time that having a laugh that is mocked, and is really loud, high pitched and in frequent bursts, is good :D
July 2, 2010 at 7:37 am
omg that baby looks exactly like my cousin Oscar
July 19, 2010 at 11:50 am
Yes! I really love laugh echos !
I think your site is one of the best sites ever.
It shows people they may not give up.
Go on with your life !
Man, I really admire you.
p.s. I’m sorry if my English isn’t that good, I come from Beglium, but now I’m on vacation in Crete & I red about you’re site on the internet.
Much love & do never ever ever give up. There’s always a reason to live for, trust me.
U can do it ! really.
haha =D
August 8, 2010 at 9:35 pm
looking crazy is worth the laugh
August 8, 2010 at 9:57 pm
the laugh is worth looking crazy
August 9, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I indulge in several of these every day.
August 19, 2010 at 12:05 pm
I usually get it while I’m lying in bed, I’ll think of something funny and just burst out laughing by myself. That’s the best.
August 25, 2010 at 11:49 am
I have to post again because I had a severe laugh echo all morning, this morning. I kept thinking about that “Bed Intruder” remix video on You Tube (I’m already LOLing right now thinking about it) and I’ve just been sitting in my cube looking like a maniac smiling and laughing by myself as I recite the lyrics to myself.