Policeman: Phew! It’s a laugh.
2nd Policeman: What’s a laugh?
Policeman: The noise you make in the back of your throat.
2nd Policeman: Yeah, that’s a laugh. The Young Ones: Boring, BBC 1982
We’ve gone back to work. We’ve got in the lift. Next thing I know the lift stops. The doors have opened. She’s walked out. I’ve followed her out. I take one look around me. I’m only on the fifth floor ain’t I. I’m only on the fifth floor in Human Resources. I know. I’m on the fifth floor in Human Resources; I was supposed to be down on the third in Personnel. Well we have gone off into uncontrollable hysterics … The Catherine Tate Show series I, Paul and Sam, BBC 2004
We laugh, but inept is our laughter;
We should weep and weep sore,
Who are shattered like glass, and thereafter
Remoulded no more. Abu’l-Ala-Al-Ma’arri
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful. Proverbs 14:13
Laugh no man to scorn in the bitterness of his soul. Ecclesiasticus 7:11
We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought. Percy Bysshe Shelley, To a Skylark
Now if the harvest is over,
And the world cold,
Give me the bonus of laughter,
As I lose hold. John Betjeman
If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane. Robert Frost
And I have one of those very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I’d probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up. J D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don’t bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good man. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
He had an idea that even when beaten he could steal a little victory by laughing at defeat. John Steinbeck, East of Eden
I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it’s the only thing to make it stop hurting. Robert A Heinlein
And though Remi was having worklife problems and bad lovelife with a sharp-tongued woman, he at least had learned to laugh almost better than anyone in the world, and I saw all the fun we were going to have in Frisco. Jack Kerouac, On the Road
The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion. Richard Feynman
A solitary laugh is often a laugh of superiority. Graham Greene
One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Let us take heed how we laugh without reason, lest we cry with it. Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit
Dear Mr Edwardes,
As a patriot, I am becoming increasingly distressed by the farce that the mere mention of ‘British Leyland’ by a music-hall comedian gives rise to gales of ignorant laughter ...
I would remind you, Sir, that every time someone laughs at ‘British Leyland’ they are laughing at Great Britain.
In the circumstances I would earnestly suggest that you change the name of the company either to ‘Japanese Leyland’ or to ‘Jamaican Leyland’ ... Henry Root, The Henry Root Letters, to Michael Edwardes 31st March 1979
The science of laughter – what is it? Why do we love it so much? And what’s it got to do with comedy? Horizon: Jimmy Carr and the Science of Laughter, BBC 2016
Laughter is universal but what we laugh at is cultural and personal. ibid.
Oh come on, we were laughing at Phyllis but she’s not even here. The Office US s3e22: Women’s Appreciation, Michael
Laughter: one of the most familiar yet least understood of the body’s responses. Scientific examination reveals it to be a mystery. Its role in human behaviour unknown. Recent evidence indicates that laughter may be linked somehow to our mysterious ability to heal ourselves. Is laughter capable of keeping us well? In Search of s5e12 … Laugh Therapy, History 1980
They all laughed when I said I’d become a comedian. Well, they’re not laughing now. Bob Monkhouse
For over 50 years he was a constant presence on Britain’s television screens. A reassuring host, the perfect master of ceremonies, the man whose face was so familiar he felt like the nation’s uncle. But he was also one of our finest stand-up comedians, a performer whose love of words and the crafting of a gag made him the most accomplished comic of his generation. Bob Monkhouse, Master of Laughter, Channel 5 2020
His was a stellar career that including writing comedy for some of the biggest stars in the world, appearing in movies, starring in radio shows, hosting game shows, but more than anything he was a world-class stand-up comedian. ibid.
Jokes were what Bob Monkhouse lived for. He would spend his days writing jokes, his evenings telling jokes … He once worked out he’d written and told well over a million jokes in his career. ibid.
Before long, they [with Denis Goodwin] were performing together too. In the early ’50s Bob and Denis were in such demand to appear in the top radio shows of the time that they set up their own business: the Monkhouse & Goodwin Agency … In 1962 their partnership ended. ibid.
In 1967 he was invited to become host of the biggest entertainment show of the times: The London Palladium Show … That same year Bob learned that ATV had acquired the rights to a hot new game show which had been a huge hit in Germany. The name of the show: The Golden Shot. ibid.
To entice Bob back to ATV the company had agreed that after 12 months he could host a new game show that his management had spotted in America: that show was Celebrity Squares. ibid.
Never laugh at live dragons. J R R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Laughter is also one of the best ways to slay tyrants. The Corbett Report: Laughing at Tyrants, James Corbett online June 2015