Yes, several times in my life that I've laughed so hard, and for so long that I almost passed out!

Best feeling in the world.

I know some people who almost never laugh.

I find humor in the strangest of places.

I'm always laughing like a psychopath!

It's the best way to be.

Laugher is one of the best medicines!

Luckily, I like a variety of humor, too.

Phil Lesh passed away recently. He was the 84 year old former bass player for the Grateful Dead.

I've been to around 100 Dead shows in my life, and my spouse has been to probably over a dozen of them with me. Mr. Lesh meant a lot to both of us.

I first read the news of his passing here on DU. I immediately burst into tears, and told my wife, and then she burst into tears. We were both weepy all day.

On Reddit, there is a sub-reddit called "dead head circle jerk".

This subreddit is basically for people to insult the Grateful Dead. The responses in that forum are from fans of the band who are either really baked, or tripping their faces off.

Shortly after Lesh's passing, I was reading that subreddit.

A question was posed: What do you guys do when you are having a bad trip at a Grateful Dead show?

The first answer was "I close my eyes and imagine Phil Lesh making love to my wife".

Well, that wouldn't be funny to anyone else, but it tickled me, and it did the same to my spouse. The tears turned to hysterical laughter for a few hours.

We still laugh about that one stupid statement, considering the circumstances and the probable state of mind of whomever typed that response out...it was just so ridiculously absurd that we had to laugh.

Laughter is healing...I laugh freely and without fear of how silly I might look.

I also experience this type of laughter when speaking to a friend of mine. It's what keeps me relatively sane. That's why I appreciated your OP...it's something that is not talked about much, but I truly believe that uncontrolled laughter extends your life span.

😄 I get it.

🤔 Considering I've seen 4 of my 5 favorite bands around 20 xs each that's 80 shows. And many more performers less times.

I'm pretty positive laughter has some positive biochemical, and energetic properties. Sure know it makes me feel good!

I'll even laugh out loud on the NYC Subway reading something really funny.

While not usually for happy reasons - turns out crying gets rid of some bad bio-chemicals. Scientists tested the tears of subjects cutting onions, and those crying from stressful situations.

Turns out they found harmful chemicals in the stress tears, but not the culinary ones!

That I did pass out! I couldn't breathe.

I blacked out for a minute...

I was at a friends apartment, and we were all smoking weed. Someone did something stupid with a sandwich, and in my state of mind, I thought it was the funniest thing I ever saw.

Ended up on the floor holding my stomach, unable to stop laughing. Last thing I remember was my friends looming over me, asking me if I was OK, then I woke up to four faces looking down at me..."I think you passed out".

To my event. I try to have a good, hard laugh regularly, like it was part of my diet.

That does get a little scary though when you can't stop!

I can never laugh enough so any extended bouts are accepted as catch up time.

unusual breathing apparatus, I started singing bel canto as a child and have massive lung capacity, I think my muscles did the job though, I was just laughing hysterically, as I do, and couldn't catch my breath. Missing a breath just once is all it takes to knock you out no matter how big your lungs are.

Looked up "bel canto", too.

I have heard the phrase.

and never weighed more than 175. When this episode happened, we were all still at home, in our teens. He was 17 or 18. One evening, he was sitting on a chair in the living room and had his feet propped on another, a dining chair with a spindle back. I think he had his shoes on, at least socks. Somehow he got his foot caught between 2 of the spindles, and couldn't get it free. All hell broke loose as he went into panic mode and kicked his leg with the chair stuck to his foot in all directions. My Mom came in and she tried to help him, all the while swearing, as she always did. My younger brother and I started laughing, and we couldn't stop. The more they tried to get his foot loose, the funnier it got. He finally got his foot untangled and stomped out of the room. I think that was the hardest I ever laughed.

The occasion?

A performance by Steve Martin. He walked out on stage with a banjo which everyone thought was a prop. This was before it was well known that Steve was an excellent player.

He told jokes for 20 minutes before informing the crowd that he was going to "play us tune" right after he tuned his banjo. In the previous 20 minutes he had made an animal balloon which was on his head along with pink bunny ears, an arrow through the head prop.....and a fake Grauco Marx mustache and glasses.

He "pretends" to tune his banjo by fingering the air right above the tuning pegs for like five minutes. Then, with that big grin on his face he says, "I think I've got it now, " and precedes to play the most God awful chords on the banjo that you have ever heard.

I was sitting with my friends, all music students, and we just had gone through a whole semester discussing modulation or key changes, and Steve, after the bad banjo chords says (still with the grin on his face);

"On no! I think I modulated into the key of shit."

One of my friends laughed so hard he fell off his chair.

My stomach muscles were sore for a week. I've never laughed so hard since.

Steve then preceded to play a flawless uptempo version of Foggy Mountain Breakdown that stunned the crowd. At the last note the room was silent....before breaking out with one of the most raucous rounds of applause I have ever heard.

Those were the days my friends we thought they'd never end......

Your last line really got to me. Only the memories remain.

Make a practice out of it and try to have one or two good laughing episodes a month.

Brat. And our golden lab Buster and our Grey Domestic Short-haired 25 # cat Dinky, were outside too. The cat and dog were playing and all of a sudden Dinky got really pissed at Buster and went after him . Well Buster started running with Dinky right behind him and swatting him everything he caught up. The funniest part of it is that Buster was running in a circle and round and round they went for a good 10 minutes before Buster got so tired he just stopped.

If you have heard the old story of little black Sambo and the tigers that's what it reminded me of. I told my daughter Buster was going to turn into a pool of Butter.

That became his nickname. BUTTER

It happens to me less and less now. I have something wrong with my right side that, every time I laugh more than a bit, it feels as if I have pulled a muscle. I have to be careful about laughing too much these days. It really sucks.

I know a few people who seldom laugh. They are a bit creepy to myself. They don't see an issue with it. I will also say that, of the people I know these days, the ones who don't laugh very much are also the ones who have a fairly non-existent sense of humor. Not sure if there is a connection.

I just noticed that I put 'your' instead of the correct 'you're'.

My English teacher grandmother is rolling in her grave at the moment.

My sides and stomach were hurting so hard and I had snot coming out of my nose, I had to stop listening. Put my head down between my legs. I was a mess. Whoo!

...we felt weak. We were exchanging stories of weird experiences in our health care careers, and I asked her if she had ever heard of what I consider to be a strange practice called "lotus birth." Lotus birth, for those who may not know, involves leaving the placenta and cord attached to the newborn infant until it dries u and falls off naturally, which may toke up to 10 days. During this time, the mother is provided with a shoulder bag into which the placenta and cord are put, so it/they can be carried around.

One description of this noted that, "After several days, the meaty smell of the placenta attracted the attention of the family cat." I'll just bet it did -

We also were highly amused at the description of several Victorian mourning brooches made from the hair of deceased humans that noted in bright red print - "Low in stock. Only one left." Presumably, such pieces are all one-of-a-kind, so that caveat struck us as completely unnecessary and quite hilarious.

This led to a discussion of the various companies that will make jewelry out of breast milk, pieces of the umbilical cord &/or pieces of the placenta. (I post this with some trepidation, anticipating that my finding amusement in something that someone else may have found meaningful might be coming across as insensitive. If so, I do apologize.)

After the profound post-election despair, it felt really good to laugh that hard.