Death By Laughter

Death isn't funny. None of us truly know the answer to what happens after your heart stops, your brain stops sending electrical signals through your body, and you'll be stuck in the ground for a while. Some are afraid of death, and some embrace it as just another path in existence, but it is no laughing matter. Except when it is. Then, it's kinda funny.

"Dying of Laughter" is a term people use to describe when they've started to laugh so hard, they can't breathe for about 10 seconds. These same people also like to use the term "Literally" in almost every wrong way. No, you literally didn't die of laughter. You are a liar, and should be ashamed of yourself. Stop using "Literally" to describe everything. You are destroying a beautiful language.

But, in some very real cases, people have perished due to laughing. You'll have to forgive me if I find these funny, but to me, there's no better way to go out than with a smile. You can trust me. Can't you? Trick question: You can't, but I say you can, because I too, am a liar. That being said, here are a few cases where people have literally died of laughter.

First, I should talk about real-world laughing gas. We know it as N2O, or simply as nitrous oxide. This is the stuff that makes expensive cars go fast, what dentists use to make the pain go away, and the stuff that junkies put inside their bodies every time they use whippets. If enough of this stuff is in your system, oxygen won't be able to flow through your blood, and you'll eventually pass out, or even die. Don't do drugs, kids.

No joke, this crap will kill you.

But, what about non-chemical factors? What about naturally laughing to death? Well, we've got plenty of examples here for you!

The first example comes from Ancient Greece, like all good stories. 

There once was a man named Chrysippus. He was a philosopher, which isn't saying much, as this was Ancient Greece. From what I could gather, he was a pretty smart dude with a pretty awesome beard. He wrote about many rules of logic, and overall, he probably had a better grip on reality than I do. I know, what a jerk.

Now, the circumstances of his death are quite odd. One account says he died laughing after witnessing a donkey eat some figs. I'll give you a moment to create a mental image of that. A donkey eating figs. The story does say that he was drunk, so I guess if you're blowing .04%, you find a lot of things funny, like women's tennis, The Notebook, and watching a donkey eat figs.

Our second example for today comes from Medieval Europe.

Martin of Aragon was an old, fat king. When his brother croaked without any heirs, he took the throne for himself, and spent most of his time waging wars in North Africa and trying to keep the throne away from the many Sicilian nobles who wanted the throne to themselves. This was back when Sicily wasn't considered part of Italy, and demanded respect, I guess.

I won't go into detail about how many children this dude had, and how he failed to secure the throne for one of his sons, but I will say this: Obesity and laughing at the top of your lungs do not mix. The details of his death aren't exactly clear, but I imagined he died thinking "Dude, Italy looks like a boot, and it's kicking us!".

The last example for today is a bit odd, as it requires a bit of perspective.

Please forgive me for the fact that there's a man in blackface pretending to be Muhammad Ali. This was the 1970s.

Anyway, this is from an episode of The Goodies, a British comedy TV series. So, the plot is that Bill is teaching his friends about the might and power of Ecky-Thump, a Lancastrian martial art that involves bashing people over the head with black pudding. His friends, Tim and Graeme, don't believe him, and challenge him to one-on-one combat by using made-up martial arts.

Anyway, a 50-something bricklayer saw this scene, and couldn't stop laughing for 25 minutes. He stopped eventually, but he died. Instead of receiving a lawsuit from the man's widow, Bill, Tim and Graeme were given a letter, thanking them for making her husband's final moments wonderful. The man did have heart problems beforehand, but it's the laughing which caused his heart to give up.

Out of all the ways you could ever expect to go out, we should follow this man's example, and live life as it is. We all are born, we live, and we die. We are not born to die, but to live our lives happy, and with the ones we love. The best you can hope for after a long life is a nice, pleasant death. And you have to admit, that episode was funny as hell.