A roadmap for life with more laughter in it

Humour isn’t something we’re born with but a skill we develop through practice. Marie Kelly talks to several experts who explain how to find fun in the humdrum.

When was the last time you laughed? I mean belly laughed. If you can’t remember, it may be a sign you’re neglecting your health because according to new research and a recently published book, humour is a serious tool in our wellbeing arsenal.

Staying healthy isn’t just about diet and exercise; it’s about seeking out moments of humour, joy and connection. A good laugh is more than just a soothing balm or a light diversion – it can enhance both physical and mental health, spark creativity and help us survive life’s toughest moments.

US comedian and author Chris Duffy’s book Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy, published in January, reveals the health benefits of humour and provides a road map for a life with more laughter in it. Duffy maintains that humour is not something we’re either born with or without, it’s something we have to actively practice and foster – like small talk if you’re an introvert or sleep hygiene if you’re an insomniac.

He suggests keeping a laughter diary as it helps us to re-access funny moments and relive them. In the same way that gratitude journals serve as daily reminders of positive experiences, circumstances and people, laughter diaries can bring a little levity back into our everyday lives at a time when the world can seem filled with more heartache than humour.

Duffy also cites curiosity as an effective wellness tool. Broadcaster, author, comedian and wellness expert Dermot Whelan agrees. “Curiosity is a great place to start,” he says. There’s one phrase I find resets me and knocks me out of that moany-pants frame of mind and it’s, ‘Hmm, interesting’. What you’re doing is saying, okay, I’m open to possibility, and of course all the science around curiosity points to the fact that a phrase like ‘Hmm, interesting’ can immediately shift us from a danger frame of mind – where our stress response has been activated – to a learning and growth mode, which means we have access to more of our brain for learning but also for playfulness and fun.” Whelan maintains Irish people by their nature are extremely curious and says, “the craic lives in curiosity”.

Belfast-born comedian Vittoria Angelone is sitting backstage at a gig in Middlesbrough in the UK with a fractured ankle when we speak. “I was playing rugby so it’s my own stupid fault,” he admits dryly. The 29-year-old says embracing “a childlike wonderment and a wide-eyedness” – fractured ankle or not – encourages humour and laughter. “I have the privilege of going on tour as a comedian, but I end up in some pretty weird places. I can arrive somewhere and think, God, this is a real dreary dump, or I can say, Wow, it’s amazing that people live here. I wonder what makes them tickle.”

The word ‘lemonading’ was coined by researchers in Oregon University in the US last year to describe this habit of reframing bitter situations as positive experiences. “I think Irish people are very good at this,” says Angelone, “and I think people from the North are particularly good at it because my parents’ generation grew up around some tough shit, so having an attitude of ‘If you you don’t laugh you’ll cry’ is a good coping mechanism that we can all adopt.”

The word ‘lemonading’ was coined by researchers in Oregon University in the US last year to describe this habit of reframing bitter situations as positive experiences.

Vittorio recently met a 90-odd-year-old-man who has kept a laughter diary for years. “He’s a very sweet old guy who lives down the road from my girlfriend’s parents in a wee cottage in the middle of nowhere in England. If there’s something in the newspaper he finds funny, he cuts it out and keeps it in his laughter book, or he’ll write down a funny item from the radio. Whenever he’s feeling down, he looks at his laughter book. He told me that his memory is so bad now, he laughs just as hard the second time around.”

Perhaps laughter is the secret to longevity. It’s certainly instrumental in building resilience and reducing stress, according to the Oregon University research published in Frontiers in Psychology. It determined that playfulness in adults is a vital but underappreciated resource for maintaining wellbeing, particularly during challenging times, and it’s especially relevant in the face of increasing global challenges. Humour doesn’t change the fact of a situation, but it offers a momentary release. Humor can help to snap us out of how we’re feeling.

For poet Jan Brierton, these momentary releases are often found in monotony and by avoiding that state of autopilot we can all fall into. “I’m in the weeds at the moment, just with life, but I’ll still have a laugh listening to other people’s conversations on the bus,” she says. “You’ve got to find lightness in the dark,” she adds. The 50-year-old recalls a moment at her beloved Uncle Bobby’s funeral in Mount Jerome when, as the coffin was slowly and reverently retreating behind a curtain, somebody’s phone went off on full volume with a spaghetti Western ringtone. “I laughed out loud because Bobby would have loved that. Of all the theme tunes to cut to… Things can be painful and sad but amusing at the same time,” she says.

Brierton is quick to differentiate this kind of lightheartedness from toxic positivity. “I don’t believe there’s always a silver lining. Sometimes, it’s helpful to say, this is shit because some things are just bad.” Humour doesn’t say it’s good, but it lets you laugh at it for just a minute, she explains.

The essence of Brierton’s poetry is finding fun in the humdrum. One of her most popular poems, which she incorporates in every live show, is Meditation Cake: “I tried to meditate today. They say it clears the head. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. So I had some cake instead.” Whelan concurs. “The little doorways to playfulness and the stress relief we get from it are all around us if we’re willing to open our eyes a bit and get off the news feed.”

For anyone who struggles to find the joy in small things, Whelan suggests connecting with the people who bring playfulness out in us. “Old school buddies have that knack of bursting the bubble of seriousness that’s around us, of just sticking a pin in that self-importance or that harumph attitude we may be stuck in. There are one or two I speak to on a weekly basis and I reach out to them at exactly those times when I feel there isn’t enough humor in my day or my week because I know that within seconds of a phone call, we’ll be putting on the same silly voices we did when we were 15 and laughing at each other. And that makes me feel lighter.”

This kind of camaraderie is a big part of the appeal of Cold Wet Irish Summer, a comedy podcast where co-hosts Thomas Lawrance, Mark Moloney and Ross O’Donoghue drive around Cork in Moloney’s car finding the fun in all kinds of people and places, be that a psychic medium in Cobh, a dinosaur exhibition at UCC or an ice rink in Cork City, where Maloney wound up with a fractured rib. “Podcasts serve as a kind of friendship simulator,” explains Moloney, a part-time comedian who works in Stem research. “Maybe it’s because the audio quality of the podcast is poor, but the feedback we get is that listeners feel like they are in the car driving around with us.”

In Duffy’s book, the comedian and author of Ted talk, How To Find Laughter Anywhere, explains that saying yes to unusual things is a good way to go about introducing levity to your life. Maloney agrees, explaining that the lads’ last outing was to a wrestling event in Cork City. “That really wasn’t my cup of tea, but sometimes the humour is in the discomfort.”

For Whelan, anything that can knock off our stress response is worth trying – even a four-legged friend. “I’ve found that a dog is a great tool for playfulness, even though I was resistant in the early days,” he admits. “Our stress response – that wonderfully helpful alarm – is ringing 24-7 these days because of news feeds, changes to our work environment, social media and a lot of anger in the world. It’s constantly primed for activation, but a dog can become an emotional polyfilla that naturally plugs the difficult cracks that can appear in the mood of a household.” Although he admits with a laugh that it puts a lot of pressure on the family’s jack russell mongrel to be a constant source of amusement when he probably just wants to have a snooze.

Angelone’s advice is, “Just say something stupid every so often. I think people are too concerned with trying to be clever and insightful in conversation. But just say something idiotic. If you don’t know the answer to a question, just guess and then have a bit of craic about it,” he says. “It’s quite an Irish thing,” he adds. “The point is not to make sense. If you want to get lofty about it, it’s Samuel Beckett, it’s James Joyce. It’s nonsense, but it’s good fun.”

This article was originally published in The Irish Times Magazine, April 2026