It’s true: laughter is the best medicine. Apart from the obvious effects of laughing that allow you to burn up to 40 calories every 10 minutes, it releases endorphins to your body that help you with stress, anxiety, pain and managing your depression. Although laughing is helpful for your body and mind, when used to humiliate someone or lighten a serious topic then it is not as a constructive tool.

From a young age, kids are raised to know that laughter is a good thing, that it is a sign of happiness and freedom. As students grow older, oftentimes it is used as an intervention from a tough topic, a nervous laugh can escape your lungs as you feel uncomfortable. This little action can take away from a whole conversation, as it is important for kids to learn how to deal with uncomfortable situations without bursting out in laughter.

Another negative form of laughter are jokes about a serious topic that take away from people learning and taking that topic seriously. Recently with the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have made jokes about it, which is insensitive as hundreds of thousands of people have suffered so far from it. Not only are these jokes insensitive, but it clouds people’s perception of the real dangers of the pandemic, and takes away from their learning of the situation.

On the other hand, laughter and humor can be used as a positive, allowing you to take yourself less seriously and enjoy the world around you. When you say something dumb or off-topic in class, instead of dwelling on it all day you and your classmates can just laugh it off and move on. Laughter allows you to decrease your anxiety and enjoy your time with the people around you a lot more. It also gives you a sense of control over a situation, because if you play with a situation and laugh it off, you can turn it into an opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

Laughter is often used as a tool for kids to make friends as laughter is something that people can easily bond over. It is a universal language that no matter your race, religion or backround people can understand. A common example of this is how people interact with humor in online situations, viral videos can make people laugh across the world. This simple interaction connects millions of people, and provides them a break from their life to relax and laugh.

Laughter should be used as a solution rather than a problem, kids should learn how to deal with uncomfortable situations so that they can learn that laughter is the best medicine. After dealing with a situation people should learn how to laugh it off so you can grow and learn from the situation.