If Laughter is the Best Medicine, Why Doesn’t Medium Support This Valuable Therapy More Strongly?

Maybe humor can counteract the effects of global warming, politics, that plastic garbage patch in the ocean, or the Kardashians

It seems Medium has deprioritized humor in their Boost program and perhaps more broadly.

Perhaps it’s reality. Perhaps it’s perception. Perhaps it is a bit of both.

Honestly, I don’t know. Then again I’m working with incomplete information. And I freely acknowledge that.

But, here’s what led to my highlighted observation above.

This article recently appeared.

In it, writer-friend, Robin Wilding 💎, detailed the 50 or so Medium pubs with the power to boost one’s story.

Relying solely on Robin’s words as gospel, I paged through her list.

Two humor pubs — with boosting power — are listed.

The Belladonna

First is The Belladonna with its 65K followers. To my knowledge The Belladonna is a pure humor pub but in their “WHO can submit” section is this quote. “We warmly welcome all women, non-binary, genderqueer, and GNC authors, however green or seasoned, to submit. We exist to nurture and claim more space for writers of marginalized genders.”

In essence, funny dudes are prohibited from playing along.

Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

About 6,000 people follow J.A.W. and funny dudes are welcome. A quick scan of recently published stories brought up two names I know, Caleb Coy and John Peck.

Cool!

More

1️⃣ I fully realize that so-called non-humor-focused pubs can publish humorous pieces and these may have the chance to get boosted. I suspect, without knowing, that this phenomenon is uncommon, even rare, since boosters in non-humor-focused pubs may be looking to boost stories that more closely align with the pub’s central focus.

Again though, I do NOT know this to be a fact.

2️⃣ Robin wisely points out that The Haven, at 16.4K followers, and MuddyUm, with its 8.3K followers, while not currently having Boost ability may be closely watched for Boost-able material by others who do.

Still, why are these humor woolly mammoths not Boost capable?

3️⃣ And speaking of woolly mammoths — not an extinction reference but a size-matters reference — what about Slackjaw, the biggest and baddest humor woolly mammoth of them all?

This humor behemoth has nearly 150K followers and has been around since the Jurassic Period. That’s some comedy chops!

Now that I’ve (mildly) vented my spleen, why TF is humor important and why should it be boosted in all its many forms and glories?

But first, the Boost criteria.

You can read them in detail here:

Kristina God is another writer-friend, and one who tracks Medium-related stuff avidly, so I’m placing my full faith and trust in her words.

You can read the full text of the Boost criteria in her story 👆 but the five Boost highlights are summarized 👇.

Story must be constructive

“leveling up”, “takeaway (no, not food) message”, “readers’ lives improve”, and “story generates real laugh (there’s that word) or emotion” — these are the key components of “constructive”

Story must be original

This one should speak for itself.

Story author must have relevant experience

I defy you to define what constitutes “relevant experience” for a humor writer.

Sure some have formal schooling in humor writing or professional humor writing experience, but I’m willing to bet — big — that this is a minuscule minority of Medium humor writers.

Most of us humor schleps are just in the midst of a weird and wacky humor-writing apprenticeship of some kind. The kind without a mentor, but one that goes on and on as we learn from life’s best teacher… experience.

Story must be well-crafted

Sure humor writers are a rag-tag bunch and frequently impaired or straight-up dysfunctional, but that’s part of our abrasive charm.

Come to think of it, that’s the case for nearly all writers, no matter what form of shite they splatter. Don’t believe me, I’ll name names and kick asses if I have to… Ernie H., Sylvia P., Jack L… You get the picture.

HOWEVER, this does NOT mean that humor writers can’t craft, even well craft, with the best of them!

Story must be memorable

Who among us can honestly claim that we don’t REMEMBER and share the best humor gems we unearth with our friends? Everyone freakin’ loves it and we bring a little joy into the world.

I challenge you to NOT tell this non-PC classic to at least two others. Q: What do you call a clairvoyant midget who just escaped from prison? A: A small medium at large.

or

Q: What does a dyslexic agnostic insomniac do at night? A: Lies awake wondering if there is a dog.

See?!

Humor can meet rigorous Boost criteria. Even though I worked against my own excellent points with the two jokes above.

So what is it that Medium has against humor’s healing power?

Laughter is the best medicine (said no one ever having a heart attack) and it’s free.

We ain’t talking Ivermectine here people. Or something that weird Uncle Jed brewed up in his “lab” out back, just about the time you noticed a precipitous decline in the neighborhood’s rodent population and a steady increase in Jed’s trips to Home Depot.

I won’t list all my “research” findings here but I’d challenge you to do a Google search for “health benefits of laughter.”

I did a search and the first four results are from: Mayo Clinic, HelpGuide.org, Cleveland Clinic, and VeteransAffairs.gov. All extol the healing and health benefits of humor and laughter. Most back up their claims with good-quality scientific research.

And just a tease — humor and laughter: reduce stress, lower blood pressure, improve endorphin release, lower heart rates, AND are well known to help you get laid (OK, I just threw that last one in for effect, but it’s true.)

So come on, Medium.

Get with it and figure out how to Boost more funny people.

It’ll be good for you, good for us, and good for our often-despondent readers slogging through this tough world of ours.

Thank you!

Can’t get enough of this thought-provoking stuff?

Well then, try this.

Are ya with me, funny people?

Claire Franky, Kristen Stark, Johnny Robish, T. Kent Jones, Alex Baia, Christine Stevens, Uvebruce, Kristine Laco, Lon Shapiro, Smillew Rahcuef, Buster Benson, Tony Stubblebine, Kyrie Gray, Carlos Garbiras