Middle-Pause Pump-Priming Prompt
What’sYour Favorite Way to Lighten up and Laugh?
If you missed World Laughter Day, here’s a way to catch up
Did you know yesterday was World Laughter Day?
I didn’t. Until yesterday. I always thought of May 1st as May Day in the days of yore. You know, kids with flowers dancing around a maypole, winding colorful streamers around it. That’s a tradition that goes back in time and crosses many cultures.
According to Wikipedia, it got started 600 years ago in Roman-occupied Britain. And has been in and out of the good graces of the official church of the time. Eventually, the tradition spread to other parts of Europe and beyond, getting transformed along the way.
The Celtic celebration of Beltaine goes back even further. Wikipedia says: It marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, people, and crops, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, whose flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective powers.
The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast,
On Nicaragua’s Afro-Caribbean east coast, Palo de Mayo is a fertility ritual featuring a very sensuous dance. Palo de Mayo music is fast and textured like most Caribbean rhythms, inviting bodies to shake and shimmy. Ask me how I know!
On a more somber note, May 1 is also International Worker’s Day. The date was chosen by the American Federation of Labor to support the movement for the eight-hour workday, going on around the world at the time. There was a general strike in the United States beginning on that day.
The tradition has continued. In some countries, May First is an official ‘Labor Day holiday. It’s usually celebrated with rallies, demonstrations, and/or parades.
Enter World Laughter Day
World Laughter Day got started in 1998, in India, by Dr. Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga clubs. People gather in large usually outdoor celebrations for the sole purpose of laughing together.
Not by watching a comedian. But because laughing is so good for us. It relieves tension, oxygenates our bodies, deepens our lung capacity, tones our abdominal muscles, and even strengthens our immune system.
Instead of chanting Ho ho, Hey Hey, Bring back the 8-hour day! they just chant ho, ho, ho, ha, ha, ha! It may sound contrived but once you start laughing with a group, it becomes contagious. The Laughter Yoga movement sets its site on a vision no less than world peace through community laughing.
That my friend is no joke!
Even though by the time you read this, it will no longer be World Laughter Day, laughing is so important and healthy, it deserves our attention.
Which brings us to this week’s Middle-Pause Pump-Priming Prompt: What is or are your favorite way(s) to lighten up and laugh?
It can be anything from a polite chuckle to gut-busting guffaws. Sooner or later we all need to laugh. If nothing else, to keep from crying. Given the state of the world today, it’s no wonder some of our humor is dry, dark, or both.
I’m happy to prime the pump by going first.
Maybe that’s why I came up with that name. Actually, it was the alliteration. Enough Ms and Ps to make me an MP–Member of Parliament, right? Actually no thanks, Britain will have to solve its own messes without me. I’ve got enough of my own, thank you very much.
If I really need to get out of my head, I’ll put on a movie. I have lots of DVDs and an old MacBook that still has a DVD player.
With a nice mix of low and high brow humor, here are some that do it for me:
Noises Off, which was a stage play before being filmed, stars Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, and Christopher Reeves. It’s the story of a theater company rehearsing and performing a bedroom farce, where the backstage antics end up as farcical as their onstage antics.
Crazy in Alabama: Two Southern stories in one: The first is a coming of age story featuring P Joe, played by Lucas Black, set during the early days of desegregation. That’s interlaced with the story of his aunt Lucille played by Melanie Griffith, who’s killed her abusive husband, chopped him up so he fits in the deep freeze, and run off with his head in a Tupperware container.
She’s on her way to Hollywood and stardom, with several hilarious roadblocks along the way. Based on the book by the same name, penned and scripted by my hero, Mark Childress. He nailed the story with a tag line to end all tag lines: To Kill a Mockingbird meets Thelma and Louise.
Anything with Tracy Ullman in it: She plays a variety of characters in a series of shows over many years, including Tracy Takes On and the Tracy Ullman Show. Her show launched the Simpsons, believe it or not.
In a riveting HBO special, she shares the story of how she developed her characters to entertain her bed-ridden mom. She’s also been in several films.
The one that got me guffawing is I Love You to Death with Kevin Klein, Keanu Reeves, and the late River Phoenix. There’s a hilarious restaurant scene where she speaks three different languages in rapid succession: English to the waitress, Italian to her husband, and Czech to her mom.
Happy, Texas: Three prisoners escape from a chain gang. Two of them end up in Happy, Texas inhabiting an RV and taking on the identity of the guys who own it. Turns out they’re a gay couple.
One of the pair, played by Stevie Zahn, has to organize a talent pageant of mischievous little girls. He knows nothing about kids, music, dance, or sewing costumes.
So he’s a little miffed at his partner, played by Jeremy Northam, who gets to scope out the local bank and fall in love with its female director. All without blowing their gay cover, which is “mostly a hobby” anyway. When you see firemen going righty tighty, lefty loosey as they struggle to open a hydrant, you know you’re in madcap masterful hands!
Anything by Mel Brooks. Take your pick: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Silent Movie, and more. Blazing Saddles is my favorite. It features the black actor Cleavon Little condemned to sheriff a wild and wooly racist town that’s sure to kill him.
Instead, he teams up with the town drunk and sharpshooter, the Waco Kid, played by Gene Wilder. They encounter Mango as well as Lily Von Schtup played amazingly by Madeline Khan. May she and Cleavon rest in peace while our laughter ripples on and on and on.
Okay, that’s mine. Not all of mine, but I’ve run out of room. So now it’s your turn. Again the prompt: What is or are your favorite way(s) to lighten up and laugh?
It can be anything from a polite chuckle to gut-busting guffaws. Or anything in between. But let it please be something! We look forward to hearing from you!
Marilyn Flower’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow her Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!
