Clinton's laugh may do us some good — no joke

Yes, Hillary Clinton's laugh can seem a little odd.

And, yes, the current discussion of her laugh is at least a little sexist.

And, yes, in a perfectly responsible world we'd be talking instead about Darfur and the deficit.

Now that we've agreed on that, I want to take this yucking matter in another direction.

First, though, a reprise of the situation:

Last week on "The Daily Show" Jon Stewart aired a video pastiche of Sen. Clinton laughing while she was interviewed on several Sunday TV talkfests. She emitted big laughs in response to some sober questions, and, though her sober answers followed, the laugh is what lingered.

Internet video and audio clips soon multiplied like cockroaches, and The New York Times ran a story about other instances of what its writer dubbed "The Cackle."

Pundits and citizen psychoanalysts took to debating Hillary's cackle, also known as her giggle, guffaw, chuckle or belly laugh. (Thank God for "The Thesaurus.")

The laugh was fake, some said. No, it was just a natural response to pressure. It was a way to deflect a question. Or to deride the questioner. It was a show of Hillary's silly side. Or her sarcastic side. Or her softer side.

Critics of the critics chimed in. Talking about Hillary's laugh was sexist: Cackling is the sound of hens, and giggling is for girls.

One astute blogger pointed out that if Clinton's critics weren't busy making fun of her for cackling and giggling, they'd no doubt call her laugh something worse — mannish.

Then there were the impostors who, having devoured every word about The Cackle, felt obliged to speak out against the triviality of commenting on it at all.

I was tempted to join that camp of phonies — until I watched a couple of laughing-Hillary videos.

And I couldn't stop laughing. When I finally did, I felt something strange. I'd been feeling grumpy and sluggish. Now, I felt alert. Refreshed. Relaxed.

I wasn't laughing at Clinton (though she really should lighten up on the yucks). Laughter, as any 3rd-grader knows, is contagious, and the mere sound of all that laughing made me laugh.

I realized I had just undergone laughter therapy.

"Laughter is a self-generated emotional state that physically helps you to feel better," said Dr. Dan Hurley when I phoned for an MD's perspective on my laughter and Clinton's.

Hurley is a pain management specialist at the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch who sometimes works with a certified laughter therapist.

Sustained laughter, he said, is good for you, even if it's forced. It raises your heart rate but lowers your blood pressure, releases endorphins, boosts your immune system and strengthens your abdominal muscles. It offers a kind of runner's high but without the stress of pounding the pavement.

There's some data to support these theories and many believers. Chicago's Swedish Covenant Hospital offers laughter yoga therapy classes in which patients cackle, chuckle, chortle and guffaw as a group.

Modern laughter therapy is credited to the late journalist Norman Cousins, who claimed that 10 minutes of laughing at a Marx Brothers movie could provide him with two hours of pain-free sleep. Some advocates say 10 seconds helps.

But what about Clinton's laugh? Hurley hadn't seen the video, but he talked about laughter as "a biological prop."

"If someone is nervous and they can laugh, if they're buying a few seconds by laughing, they've done a positive thing," he said.

"From a medical perspective it's all beneficial." He distinguished, though, between the mirthful laugh and the derisive laugh. In a mirthful laugh, the muscles and willpower let go. A derisive laugh is controlled and the emotion is negative: "It's more like an assault."

I don't know how therapeutic Clinton's laughter is for her but hers was good medicine for me.

So I'd like to issue a challenge to any presidential candidate truly interested in health care: Let's see a compilation video of you laughing in public, gentlemen.