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lgd1000pmickey-mouse-laughing So screamed the Contrarian last night, pulling an afghan over his head. “Tell me when it’s over!”

“No, no, it’s not his butt, it’s his thigh. You can look now.”

Meanwhile I began to wail with laughter, and run off looking for pen and paper to write this down, sure that it would make a fine lead in to today’s post, no matter the rest of the content.

Now, we were after all watching Dancing with the Stars, and one of the worst contestants of  the season, in Steven Wozniak,  Apple wiz, but an appalling atrocious dancer.  It seems, on top of being blessed with two left feet, and wearing black dress socks with shorts to rehearse in, Woz had suffered a pulled hamstring and was being taped up.

The Contrarian saw the gaping wall of flesh and nearly lost his lunch. This all seems rather odd to me, since the same man loves to critique the relative merits of the various cheerleading squads as we watch the NCAA basketball games. The athletic types have sacrificed real boob size, and he would prefer the rah rah types rather than those that flip around. The rah rahs are more heavily or heavenly endowed, as you please.

The point is that laughter is a daily occurance around our house, and usually several times per day. And I mean, not just a grin and mild giggle. We engage in the loud, hold your sides, guffawing that gets to that point where you fear you can’t stop, and are gasping for breath.

And somehow, that all seems bad, if you check around the blogosphere, and TV. At least in a few places, its down right unAmerican it seems. Plenty of “conservative” (read nut cases) are just all in a tither that Obama was actually laughing on Jay Leno and later on 60 Minutes.

Seems that that is, well, unseemly, in our economic gloom. So we understand from that bastion of fair and balanced, Foxy land. Why, according to the Contrarian, they sagely kept up the rhetoric nearly all day, that Obama was shockingly unfeeling as he laughed, while for goodness sakes, people are suffering from all manner of economic cruelty.The fact that most of this has been caused by the very people they have upheld for years as those hallmarks of business elan, well no matter.

No matter indeed. Fox forgets that not all that long ago, they were defending Bush as he and Barney traversed the White House environs exclaiming in glee, “No WMD’s here, none, here.” All this while actual PEOPLE died. They said the president, why he was in need of letting off a little steam what with the fate of the entire planet on his shoulders. It was wrong for the “liberal” media to criticize such a fine man, who was so compassionate and so on and on and on. Makes ya want to puke don’t it?

Everyone knows that during the “Great Depression” the Feds actually asked Hollywood to produce comedies and send that little girl, Shirley something or other around, to help keep the country’s spirits up. Today, we find that movie theaters are doing a booming business, better than they have in years.

Psychologists tell us that laughter helps blood pressure, depression, and makes surgery and chemo therapy more effective. It cuts down on pain medication needs. People with chronic pain say it helps them forget the constant agony they feel 24/7.

There is a new thing going around called the “happy dance.” It’s like a chicken dance. Anybody can do it, and it makes people laugh, those doing it, and those watching.

We’ve become addicted to watching the last segment of the evening news where they show a story of people helping people. While not technically laughing, we at least smile a good bit, and see the world as a nicer kinder place than we would otherwise from the usual stories of gloom and doom.

I predict that comedies will do better than serious drama this year. Television and movies. I predict that all manner of fun cheap stuff will have a resurgence. Families will play Twister, and yard croquet, and badmitton. We’ll return to picnics in the park. Cartoons will be produced in greater numbers and more adults will be watching.

Okay, so I’m probably wrong on some of that. But dang, when things are so grim, people actively look for cheap thrills, they want to laugh, forget their troubles and be happy. Plenty will find that there is more happiness in a family dinner of hotdogs around the grill and roasting marshmallows over the charcoal than there is in a four star restaurant complete with prettily plated teaspoons of food.

Meanwhile Michelle Obama is slammed for digging up a few yards of precious White House lawn for a vegetable garden. How freaking unAmerican can she get? Everyone knows its far more flag waving to buy Mangos from Costa Rica, and out of season to boot. That’s real America, not growing food for your self and neighbors to improve health and maybe save a few bucks.

Been there, done that, in ummm, the Great Depression, and during WWII. Everyone knows that that was a failure, and soooooooo not the way of the good old US of A.

laughingSo laugh damnit, big belly laughing, and don’t stop. It’s good for you and good for everyone!