Chrysippus allegedly died of laughter after witnessing a donkey eating his figs.[1]Der Tod des Dichters Pietro Aretino (The Death of the Poet Pietro Aretino) by Anselm Feuerbach
Death from laughter is an extremely 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.
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]
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 author 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, featuring a kilt-clad Scotsman with his bagpipes battling a master of the Lancastrianmartial art "Eckythump", who was armed with a black pudding. After 25 minutes of continuous laughter, Mitchell then 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]
In 2003, an ice-cream truck driver in Northern Thailand, died soon after he began laughing in his sleep. One late Tuesday night, Damnoen Saen-um, 52, was asleep in his home in Mueang Phuket district when he started mumbling and laughing. Newspapers reported that Damnoen's wife made several attempts to wake up her husband as he was laughing. To no avail, Damnoen stopped breathing on Wednesday, after about two minutes of laughing. A doctor in the province calls this an unusual case and suspects Damnoen may have died from heart complications. However, they are unsure as he had no prior history of heart problems and was reported to have been walking normally the day before.[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".
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.
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.
^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. PMID17662020. S2CID10940256.
^Bark, Julianna (2007–2008). "The Spectacular Self: Jean-Etienne Liotard's Self-Portrait Laughing". North Street Review.
^Laërtius, Diogenes. Lives, Teachings and Sayings of the Eminent Philosophers, with an English translation by R.D. Hicks (1964–1965). Cambridge, Massachusetts/London: Harvard UP/W. Heinemann Ltd.
^Kingston Gleaner, Sunday, October 1965, p. 3. "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)
^King, Bart (2004-07-15). The Big Book of Boy Stuff. Gibbs Smith. p. 159. ISBN978-1-4236-1118-9. 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.
