George Gilbert’s Motivational Humor

My parents toured military hospitals overseas During World War II and Walter Reed hospital during Vietnam. This was not an easy thing to do. It wasn’t easy being up, smiling, and trying to make wounded soldiers laugh. There were many acts that couldn’t do it, it was too depressing, but they realized that was the least they could do for the soldiers who risked there lives defending our country.

Comedian Phyllis Diller once told a story about the first time she went with Bob Hope to a military hospital. She said she started to cry and Bob Hope took her aside and said to her that she wasn’t there for that and she had to be strong for them.

In Jack Benny’s auto-biography, “Sunday Nights at Seven” he describes a situation when a wounded soldier went into an epileptic fit while he was playing the violin in his act. “I knew I had to say something to break the tension in that room. ‘Well,’ I ventured, ‘Here’s a guy who got sick only when I started to play the fiddle. Let me tell you fellows - This happens frequently when I play the violin to people who aren’t in the hospital.’ Everybody laughed. The tension was broken. Even the men who had been watching with grim faces during the monologue broke up and roared with laughter. The psychiatrist on the ward told me that that one joke was the equivalent of six months of psychotherapy.”

John Steinbeck describe it best in an article he wrote in the New York Herald.

“…Bob Hope and his company must come into this quiet, inward, lonesome place, and gently pull the minds outward and catch the interest, and finally bring laughter up out of the black water. There is a job. It hurts many of the men to laugh, hurts knitting bones, strains at sutured incisiions, and yet the laughter is a great medicine….”

There are times when humor and laughter are not appropriate, but there are times that even though it may not seem appropriate, humor and laughter are a necessity. For instance, some might say that humor and laughter are inappropriate at a funeral or when a loved one passes away. But laughter may actually help us cope with the loss.

Several years ago I attended the funeral of a close family friend. She and her husband were in show-business and they often worked, toured, and vacationed together with my parents. So when she passed away it was a sad time for all. We not only lost a friend but part of our extended family. At the funeral several family members and friends stood up to give eulogies. They talked about how sad this was and how terrible cancer is. Then Morey Amsterdam, from the old Dick Van Dyke Show, spoke. He started telling humorous stories about her and jokes. Soon those tears of sorrow became tears of laughter.

Was it inappropriate to share humor and laughter at the funeral? NO! I think Morey made us realize that day that it is more important to remember the good times, the laughter, and the humor of the deceased than to focus on death and disease.

“The most thoroughly wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed.” - Chamfort

Experts tell us that as children we used to laugh on the average of 150 times a day, up to 400 times a day, but by the age of thirty-five we laugh on the average of 15 to 17 times a day. What has happened? We take laughter for granted. Doctor Albert Schweitzer didn’t take laughter for granted. When Albert Schweitzer had his hospital in the middle of the African jungle, he made a point of having dinner with his staff every night so that he could tell them a joke or a humorous story. Something to make them laugh because he knew if he could make his staff laugh they could handle the stress of working under such terrible conditions, day after day, with so many sick people. Albert Schwitzer said, “Laughter is the nutrient of the spirit.”

I don’t have to go to the African jungle to find stress, But I do understand the importance of laughter. I suggest you make a point of finding more humor in your life so that you don’t waste another day.

“It’s bad to suppress laughter. It goes back down and spreads your hips.” - Fred Allen

Actually laughter is a form of exercise. Noman Cousins called laughter “internal jogging” because when we laugh (good belly laughs) we exercise our muscles from our hips to our shoulders. We get bad air out of our lungs, lower our heart rate, lower our blood pressure and get oxygen in the blood system. Sounds like an aerobic exercise to me.

I am not saying for you to give up exercise for laughter, but think of it as a complement to exercise. Some experts tell us that 100 belly laughs are the equivalent to 10 minutes of aerobic exercise. If you physically can’t exercise this could be a healthy alternative.

I recently spoke to a group and afterward a gentlemen came up to me and said that he had been to see a comedian who performed for almost three hours. The gentleman laughed the entire time and had sore stomach muscles the next day. I explained to him that what he was doing was exercise and just like doing sit- ups or some other form of exercise, when you use muscles that you haven’t used for a while, they are going to be sore. So remember if you haven’t laughed very much lately it is important to start exercising your laugh muscles. Start out gradually and work your way up to a marathon of “Three Stooges movies.”

Change, uncertainty, the unknown. These words can cause one to stress out. Whether in your professional life or your personal life the fear of the unknown can create stress. This is when we need to keep our sense of humor most. It is easy to laugh when everything is cheery, but it is self-preserving to be able to laugh when the feelings of fear start to take effect. Abraham Lincoln understood the importance of laughter and coping when he said, “With the fearful strain that is one night and day; if I did not laugh I should die.”

Laughter can help us cope with the tension of not knowing what is next. Maintaining a sense of humor can help put the situation in perspective. Next time you are starting to stress out about the unknown ask yourself or those around you that are starting to stress out “What is the worst that can happen?” and give as many outrageous or ridiculous answers as you can come up with. Pretty soon you will be laughing at the outlandish responses. Quite often it is our anticipation of the unknown that causes anxiety rather than the actual occurrence. Dr. David B Posen, author of “Staying Afloat When the Water Gets Rough: How to Live in a Rapidly Changing World” said, “Humor isn’t about changing what happens. It’s about changing our reaction to what happens. And those who use humor as a coping strategy are generally more resilient and adaptable when faced with change.”

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I recently rejoined an athletic club. I moved and let my membership expire. When I rejoined as part of my membership I was given 5 free sessions with a personal trainer. I didn’t realize how out of shape I was until I started working with my new trainer. Rather than start slow and work up to a rigorous routine she had me doing exercises that I had never attempted before. After my first work-out I expected to not be able to move the next day. I went home and started watching humorous videos. Videos that I knew would make me laugh a lot.

The next day I was sore, but not as sore as I had expected. I believe the humorous videos had a part in relaxing my muscles. Studies show that when we laugh the muscles that are involved in the laughter start to relax and the muscles that are directly involved with laughter start to relax after we stop laughing. Laughter is said to produce endorphins, a painkilling drug like substance, produced naturally when we laugh. I have heard that marathon runners also produce endorphins when they run marathons helping them to continue through the pain.

Laughter also helps get more oxygen into the blood system, get bad air out of our lungs and some experts suggest that 100 belly laughs is equal to 10 minutes of aerobic exercise. I suggest that you make laughter part of your fitness program.

Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five. ~ Benjamin Franklin

One of the comedy teams of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s was a team called Olsen and Johnson. They were in a very popular show of the time called “Hellzapoppin.”  Olsen and Johnson ended each show with Ole Olsen saying, “May you live as long as you want.” And Chic Johnson would reply, “And may you laugh as long as you live.” I believe the way to live as long as you want is to live life to the fullest, enjoy life, and as Johnson said, “…laugh as long as you live.” The more we find the humor in our life the better the quality of our life. There are studies indicating that laughter may help us live longer. And as my mother Tulara Lee comedienne and motivational humorist says, “If you don’t laugh life will only seem longer!” 

Even if laughter doesn’t help us live longer incorporating humor and laughter into our daily life will at the very least make life more enjoyable, rewarding and able to cope with the daily onslaught of life’s challenges. A little laughter therapy can go along way. Living longer is almost everyone’s goal but more importantly is the quality of our life that determines how long we want to live. I see people going through life’s motions and not really living to their potent ional. These people aren’t happy and don’t have an optimistic view of the world or themselves. It’s a shame that they let the world beat them down to the point where they never look for the joy in their being. They have lost the will to create a positive and happy existence. My mother is 83 years young. She has been making audiences laugh for more than 60 years. The last several years she has been speaking to organization with me about laugher and longevity. These audiences are surprised when I reveal at the end of her speech that mom is actually 83 years old. She is a very optimistic and humorous person onstage and off. Even though she has been diagnosed with cancer, she is optimist and humorous and jokes that she doesn’t have time for it, because she has too many things to do and too many things that she hasn’t done yet. Many people upon hearing that they have a serious illness tend to accept the fact that they are sick and give up. They lose their optimism; they lose their humor, and give into the disease. I believe this makes healing that much harder because they don’t have the will to fight it or live.

So as Olsen and Johnson said, “may you live as long as you want to. And may you laugh as long as you live!”

Today my mother Tulara Lee saw a Cardiovascular Specialist about her lung cancer and even though the news wasn’t good it wasn’t all bad. Obviously to hear you have about a golf ball size tumor that is most likely malignant isn’t something that you are going to celebrate, but the doctor was confident that if it turns out to be malignant they can go in and surgically remove it with a full recovery.

The optimism of the doctor gave us both hope, but what really helped mom cope with the news was the doctor’s sense of humor. Upon learning that mom had been in comedy all her life and now a motivational humorist he felt comfortable using humor during the examination, helping put us both at ease. The doctor and my mother joked back and forth creating a positive rapport.

The doctor examined her, then went and started to write down his findings. He said, “I’ll be right with you. I need to write this down. I have a great memory; it’s just a short one.” Mom laughed. He also joked with her about her age and what good shape she is in for age.

After we left the doctor’s office she was relieved. She was optimistic and ready to get on with the treatment. I don’t think she would have been so positive had she not liked the doctor. If the doctor didn’t have a humorous bedside manner she wouldn’t have wanted to face a major operation. Henry Ward Beecher said, “Mirth is God’s medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.”

I have found that when the doctor has a sense of humor it creates a positive rapport. When my ex-wife was sick and needing a kidney/pancreas transplant the doctors that she responded to more positively were ones that had a sense of humor. Sharing humor creates a bond between two people and this is especially important when a person has a major health problem. Humor puts the patient at ease. Again it goes back to attitude. Bill Cosby once said, “You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything….You can survive it.” That is exactly what she intends to do. Survive it. Mom says she has too many things to do to let this get the best of her. I believe with that attitude she will be just fine. After all, she is booked to speak a little over two months after her scheduled operation and mom is from old show business and their motto is “THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!!”

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine” Lord Byron

Even though we are still waiting for more tests to be scheduled so, that we can proceed with the proper medical treatment for my mother’s lung cancer. We are not sitting around waiting to get started with her laughter therapy. That’s right, I said, laughter therapy. I hooked up a VCR for her so that she could watch our old comedy videos that we don’t have on DVD. Videos from old time comedies like Laurel and Hardy to the English comedy of Benny Hill. These are some of her favorite comedians. No matter how many times she watches Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy get into “another fine mess!” or Benny Hill and his bawdy humor, they make her laugh.  The goal for watching the humor videos at this point is to keep mom in the proper frame of mind. The last thing I want her to do especially at this stage, when we don’t have enough information about how serious her condition is or what steps we have to take for treatment is to be sick with worry. Incorporating laughter therapy to reduce the stress of the unknown can alleviate what I call the “woe is me” syndrome.

Whatever challenges you may be experiencing whether it’s an illness, psychological or, professional problem, humor can help you cope with the stress we put on ourselves keeping us from overcoming the challenge.

Everyone has their own sense of humor. Because mom was regarded as one of the funniest comedy/variety acts of her day she appreciates the old comedians and how hard they worked to perfect their craft. Many people don’t respect Benny Hill, they think he is corny, but he worked very hard to make his routines look easy. When I need some laughter therapy I may watch the old comedies or I may put in a new comedy. The other day I watched the “Wedding Crashers” with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. This movie is hilarious and I laughed out loud, but this isn’t the type of movie my mother would enjoy and therefore wouldn’t be therapeutic for her. When you need to apply laughter therapy put you favorite comedy in the DVD player or VCR and Laugh, Laugh, Laugh! Remember the old saying Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.