Death from laughter

Chrysippus reportedly died of laughter.

Der Tod des Dichters Pietro Aretino by Anselm Feuerbach.

Recorded cases of death from laughing date back to ancient Greece.

Pathophysiology

Death may result from several pathologies that deviate from benign laughter. Infarction of the pons and medulla oblongata in the brain may cause pathological laughter.

Laughter can cause atonia and collapse ("gelastic syncope"), which in turn can cause trauma. See also laughter-induced syncope, cataplexy, and Bezold-Jarisch reflex. Gelastic seizures can be due to focal lesions to the hypothalamus. Depending upon the size of the lesion, the emotional lability may be a sign of an acute condition, and not itself the cause of the fatality. Gelastic syncope has also been associated with the cerebellum.

Historical deaths attributed to laughter

• In the third century B.C., Chrysippus, the Greek stoic philosopher, died of laughter after giving his donkey wine, then seeing it attempt to feed on figs.
• In 1410, King Martin of Aragon died from a combination of indigestion and uncontrollable laughter.
• In 1556, Pietro Aretino "is said to have died of suffocation from laughing too much."
• In 1660, Thomas Urquhart, the Scottish aristocrat, polymath and first translator of Rabelais into English, is said to have died laughing upon hearing that Charles II had taken the throne.

Modern deaths attributed to laughter

• On 24 March 1975, Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer 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 Lancastrian martial art "Ecky Thump", who was armed with a black pudding. After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter, Mitchell finally 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.
• In 1989, Ole Bentzen, a Danish audiologist, died laughing while watching A Fish Called Wanda. His heart was estimated to have beaten at between 250 and 500 beats per minute, before he succumbed to cardiac arrest.
• In 2003, Damnoen Saen-um, a Thai ice cream salesman, is reported to have died while laughing in his sleep at the age of 52. His wife was unable to wake him, and he stopped breathing after two minutes of continuous laughter. He is believed to have died of either heart failure or asphyxiation.
• In 2012, Charles Baltimore, an insurance salesman, died in a nervous fit of laughter while selling insurance to popular accordianist Willie Morgan Todd. After an autopsy, it was concluded that he died of cardiac arrest.

Fictional deaths attributed to laughter

• Old Mr. Dawes or Mr. Dawes, Sr., in the film Mary Poppins
• The "Killer Joke" sketch by Monty Python
• The Toon Patrol in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• In one of the Give Yourself Goosebumps books by R. L. Stine, it is possible to get an ending where chimpanzees tickle your feet until you die of laughter.
• Kenny McCormick, a character on South Park, suffers said fate in the fifth-season episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die".
• The Dentist, Orin Scrivello, in the musical Little Shop of Horrors dies in the song "It's Just the Gas" from wearing a mask that gives himself laughing gas, rather than the patient.
• Ana in the play, The Clean House, by Sarah Ruhl.
• Jerry's friend, Fulton, in the Seinfeld episode entitled "The Stand-In".
• President Snow, in the series The Hunger Games.

See also

• Kuru (disease), also known as "laughing sickness"
• Laughing gas
• Paradoxical laughter
• Tickle torture

External links

• Snopes.com article