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It’s a truth universally recognized that a humorous, funny video has the ability to uplift anyone’s mood, no matter how badly their day is going.

However, if you are someone who thinks that cat videos, baby videos, and really clever puns are for weak-minded, easily amused people and you have stumbled across our humble blog by mistake, then have I got news for you: you’re right! They are!

Fortunately, they’re also for everyone else. You don’t have to be dim-witted to enjoy a good laugh at a goofy, funny cat video; all you need is a funny bone to tickle. Besides, humorous videos have many benefits for our physical and mental health, as well as having many social benefits.

So let’s make a list and get right into it before you roll your eyes and close the tab to go do some serious-people work.

What’s the Point of Laughing When I Could Frown Instead?

Laughter is known to be beneficial to your physical and mental health. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you are incredibly stressed out, where your body and mind are in overdrive with the tensions of everyday life or maybe even a particular situation, to the point where you feel like you can’t function?

Maybe you’re mindlessly scrolling through social media websites Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter on your phone, or perhaps you’re sitting in front of a laptop or television screen, watching without really seeing anything.

When you find yourself in this kind of situation, has there ever been a time where, during this mindset, you stumble across a silly, funny video that makes you laugh long and hard? Such that time you catch your breath, you can’t even remember what it was that you were so incredibly stressed about?

I’m sure that you have, simply because it’s such a universal experience. Even if you come across a clever pun or wordplay during a bad day, and it makes you laugh? That’s laughter working as medicine right there.

Laughter is considered to be a natural medicine, which can change the mental and physical well-being of a person without any money or other effort involved.

As an example, think of a person with depression. People with MDD have a much lower level of neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin, in their brains. These chemicals drastically influence their mood control circuit, affecting their mood overall.

But what does laughter have to do with this? Well, a lot.

Laughter can alter the levels of serotonin and dopamine; just the act of laughing at something can trick our brain into believing that we’re happy. This trick is so universally recognized that therapists and counselors have begun using it on their patients during therapy sessions.

Ever heard of laugher therapy? It’s a non-pharmacological alternative to treating depression because it has shown to have such a positive effect on the mental health of patients, as well as the immune system of the patients.

If you’re still a non-believer in the magic of funny, punny wordplay, videos, and content in general, how about we make a list of all the ways that laughter benefits you physically, mentally, and socially?

Physical Benefits

The physical benefits of laughter that come with watching funny videos are immense. It can boost your immunity, lower your stress hormones, decrease your bodily pain (and who doesn’t have bodily pain?), relax your muscles (I bet your jaw is clenched, shoulders tense right now), as well as preventing something as major as heart disease.

Mental Health Benefits

Mental health benefits include major stress relief, creating a strong sense of resilience, easing feelings of anxiety and tension (both mentally and physically) as well as improving your mood, and adding a sense of joy and zest to your life in general.

Social Benefits

The social benefits of laughter? Oh boy. Buckle in, because the social benefits of laughter can easily affect your relationships throughout your life, whether it’s your friends, your family, or your work colleagues. Laughter can strengthen relationships with these people, and help defuse any sort of conflicts that may arise. Having a funny moment or a funny colleague goes a really long way in enhancing the level of teamwork amongst your peers, and it also promotes a lot of bonding within the group, whether it’s friends, family, or colleagues.

How Can I Seek out Laughter Inducing Situations?

Looking for ways to bring more laughter into your life, but don’t know where to start? It’s simpler than you imagine.

There are the common things you can do in your daily life such as share a good joke with a friend, relating a funny story to coworkers, hosting a really exciting game night (no Monopoly!) or just watching a comedy film or show that has time and again managed to make you laugh so hard that it makes your belly hurt.

And then there are the more tender ways of getting laughter into your life. Sitting with a friend and talking about the silly things you used to get up to in the past, playing with a pet (and if you’re a cat-lover or owner, just petting them releases a lot of happy hormones!) or watching old home videos from your childhood or your children’s childhood.

Where Can I Seek out Laughter Inducing Situations?

Recently, with the world going through a global pandemic, the chance to laugh a good, belly laugh hasn’t come by too much. But no worries! The world has also majorly invested in the internet, making it so much easier to find heartwarming, funny content than ever thought imaginable.

There are the usual suspects, like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. Go on any of these and you’ll find tons and tons of humorous videos, especially compilations of funny videos, that can suck you in for hours on end (and aren’t we all just looking to get lost in a daze of happy, laughter-inducing videos these days?) and then there’s streaming websites like Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu, which have curated content from years past right at your fingertips, in case the only thing that tickles your funny bones is a good old Jerry Lewis film that has barely any coherent dialogue but is chock full of slapstick comedy that you can’t help but giggle at.

The unusual suspects, however, are places like myopunion.com, where the content isn’t just hilarious, it’s also incredibly clever, and lets you customize it for the receiver before you send it! There are also websites like dailyhaha.com, funnyordie.com, and ebaumsworld.com, which put out really great and funny content every day, just to make you laugh.

What Are the Advantages, In Case I Still Need Convincing?

Okay, grumpy grumps, if you’re still looking for reasons why watching funny videos and humorous content is good for your health, I’ve got some more important information coming your way.

Funny videos make it easy for people to relate to each other. Imagine you watched a funny video while sitting in the office cafeteria that makes you laugh so much that other people at your table start looking at you (not in a bad way!). They become curious as to what you’re watching and ask to see it too. You all share a good, hearty laugh together, and a nice moment is formed.

When you’re having a stressful day, with stressful situations piling on one on top of the other, a look at one funny video on your Instagram while you’re just scrolling past mindlessly will lift up your mood immensely, even if your only physical reaction is a huff of air coming out of your mouth.

See? You don’t even have to make the effort to actually laugh. Just watching or listening to something funny triggers your hormones, reminding your brain that you deserve to be happy and should be happy.

Funny videos make your life cheerful. They make you take life a lot less seriously than you might already do. When you pepper your day with serious content, news about war and famine, and unhappiness, then don’t be surprised if that’s really all you think about the rest of the day.

When you replace those things with happier content, you receive happier content. You make jokes, you find the lightness in every moment, and you attract more happiness.

Being happy, maintaining a life that’s full of laughter and joy goes a long way in making you live longer. It keeps unhappiness away, yes, but it also keeps fear and nervousness away and stops you from getting sucked into taking everything just a bit too seriously.

There are already a lot of stressful, depressing things happening constantly in the world around us, and if you can combat them by keeping yourself happy with the most minimal of efforts, like watching funny videos on YouTube or sending punny E-cards or Video Cards on myopunion.com, then what is there to lose?

Nothing, except moments spent laughing at funny videos and sharing them with others to spread your happiness and joy!