Died of laughter

It is commonly believed that laughter extends life expectancy, but practice has shown that this statement is not always true. There are cases when people have died of laughter, because laughter can lead to a stroke, cardiac arrest, asphyxia, and brain aneurysm. A person with a congenital heart defect, for example, needs to keep an eye on how long their laughter lasts. Failure to do so can be fatal. Here are a few cases where laughter has led to a person’s death.

1. Alex Mitchell, a bricklayer in the UK, died suddenly in 1975. It happened as a result of watching his favourite programme, The Goodies. The poor man’s heart couldn’t take the intense laughter that accompanied the show. After a while, the editors of the show received a letter from Alex’s wife. She thanked the show’s creators for making the last moments of her husband’s life the happiest of all.
2. Oli Bentzen, a doctor who lived and worked in Denmark, passed away in 1988. The reason was the film A Fish Called Wanda, which caused Oli to laugh non-stop, resulting in a heart attack.
3. Damnoen Saen-Ama, a Thai man, died as a result of heart failure, which was caused by laughing in his sleep. Witnessing the incident was his wife who made every effort to wake up her husband but was unable to do so. After a few minutes of laughter, Damnoen’s heart stopped.
4. A farmer who lived in Indiana passed away in 1893 because of unrestrained laughter. The cause of the laughter was a joke of an acquaintance, which lasted about an hour. The outcome was cardiac arrest.
5. In 5th century B.C. in Greece there lived a man called Zeukis, who was famous for his outstanding artistic talent. He was often approached by clients asking him to paint their portrait. One day he received a very unusual commission: he was asked to portray a very elderly woman as Aphrodite. This led to laughter and laughter of the artist. For about half an hour he could not cope with his uncontrollable laughter, after which he died.
6. In 1660, Charles II came to power in England. This event resulted in the death of a nobleman named Thomas Castle of Arcarta. It happened after the gentleman received the news of the new king and could not cope with a wild fit of laughter, which caused the fatal outcome.
7. Another king, Martin I, was himself the victim of his court jester, Bor, who lived in 1410. The latter by no means wished the king’s death. However, after the next dinner, when Martin asked him to make him laugh, the jester told a story about a young deer that got its tail caught in a branch. The king laughed so hard that he suffered asphyxia, which was the cause of his death.
8. Pierto Aretino, an Italian writer, has gone down in history, not by outstanding works, but by the fact that he broke his head because of a long laugh and died.