They say that laughter is the best medicine. Whoever they are, they are right. There is nothing more cohesive, more inspiring, and more cherished that absolutely losing your mind in laughter. And it is such a strange experience. Think about it. Total lack of your physical body. It should be the most embarrassing thing on the planet. Take it from a guy whose natural laugh makes Doctor Evil jealous. Yet, we pay billions of dollars are year for others to make us laugh.

If you think back to a happy memory from your childhood, there is a good bet that there was a laugh involved somewhere. At the very least a smile. It is the balm of a thousand cross words, the reason that we keep going back and hanging out with the same people, repeatedly.

More than that, there are just so many ways to laugh. Sometimes it’s all mental. Sitting alone reading a delightful book when something just hits you. Maybe you smile inwardly, maybe you let out a little scoff, or maybe you start rolling out of you chair. Sometimes you laugh in a high pitch, sometimes low, sometimes you laugh so hard no sound comes out at all.

Laughter is infectious. A social disease that we want to spread. The funniest movie in the world is best watched with an audience. Stand-up comedians thrive in front of a live audience. There is an energy in laughter, exchanged from the comedian to the audience, to each audience member together. A collective battery for the emotional core.

Friends together telling old stories they have shared a thousand times before laugh the hardest. Families reminiscing about those they lost laugh the longest. Couples who share themselves completely laugh the most.

There is just pure magic in laughter. It is both embarrassing and reassuring. It makes vulnerable in the moment, but invulnerable to the world. No, we don’t all laugh at the same things, but the very fact that we all laugh -that strange, alien contortion- binds us together.