The jokes that have made people laugh for thousands of years BBC Future

If the power rests with the audience, the comedian has a tricky task in pleasing them. Stand-up comedian Catherine Bohart knows this pressure well. "The psychology of an audience is really interesting because you seem fine, they are willing to trust you," she says.

What is another name for LOL?

LOL and beyond

We can snicker and snort. We can cackle, cachinnate, and crack up. We can even guffaw. There are many words to express laughter—and these are just in English.

In our hectic, modern lives, many of us focus so heavily on work and family commitments that we never seem to have time for pure fun. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we stopped playing. When we carve out some leisure time, we’re more likely to zone out in front of the TV or computer than engage in fun, rejuvenating play like we did as children. 

But play is not just essential for kids; it can be an important source of relaxation and stimulation for adults as well. In marketing, this can be a metaphorical way to increase the relevance of your brand or product, or make people laugh (like the PC vs. Mac commercial). Humor can foster learning by building an emotional connection that strengthens memory, and therefore can help you understand and retain information.

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Play can also heal resentments, disagreements, and hurts. Through regular play, we learn to trust one another and feel safe. Just because we’re adults, that doesn’t mean we have to make life all about work.

What is a small laugh called?

Use chuckle when you mean a quiet, even soundless laugh. Definitions of chuckle. a soft partly suppressed laugh. synonyms: chortle.

Humor workshops for businesspeople, and especially improv clubs, have exploded in recent years. It turns out that taking that leap to being willing to look silly and exposed in front of strangers has major benefits. And those benefits go beyond your primary goal of getting more comfortable with public speaking. One MIT study found that a group of improv comedians generated 20 percent more ideas than professional product designers did.