When was the last time you laughed? I don’t mean that little giggle you do to fill awkward silences or polite semi-chuckle to make your boss feel better about his Prince Harry impression. I mean really, properly, howl-out-loud belly-laughed, to the point where your abs ache and you have to force yourself to think of something serious for fear of snorting in public?
Me neither. According to a new survey by Sky, 42 per cent of us cannot recall the last time we laughed out loud and 32 per cent of us say we haven’t laughed properly in over a month — and it’s bad for our health. Recent research found laughter triggers so-called “happy hormones”, suppresses stress hormones and boosts life expectancy.
Sky’s study might seem like a convenient plug for its latest comedy shows, but London’s laughter deficit is no laughing matter. We Brits have long been masters of sarcasm — 58 per cent of us wield it as a joke, according this latest survey — but if the old expression is true and laughter really is the best medicine, is it any wonder we’re all so unhealthy and unhappy half the time?
Of course, it’s probably no coincidence that research shows rates of laughter plummet after the age of 23. When I think of my greatest lol-worthy moments over the years I immediately hark back to those carefree days of school and university, tears rolling down our cheeks at the mention of something that happened the night before. The moment a friend mistook a teacher for his girlfriend (you had to be there). The look on a classmate’s face when we filled his birthday cake with tuna. The moment we borrowed a friend’s laptop to find she’d been Googling images of animals with large eyes (you really did have to be there).
Unsurprisingly, researchers recently found that the average four-year-old laughs 70 times more than the average 40-year-old (unlimited playtime and no mortgage — go figure), but it’s no surprise that laughter rates have been diminishing more generally over the years: seeing the funny side of life feels increasingly difficult when you’re reading about pandemics, nuclear war threats and police officers murdering women on your way to a socially-distanced office because you can’t afford to turn the heating on at home.
Post-pandemic introversion and fears of being cancelled by the woke-erati could well be adding to this shift towards the serious, but above all else I blame technology: we have phones to do the laughing for us now. Why exhaust and potentially embarrass ourselves by guffawing on the Northern line when we can just hit the cry-laugh emoji (if it’s not in your top 30 icons, are you a psychopath?)? I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the moments I’ve laughed the most in recent months have been phone-free.
Unfortunately I don’t have photo-evidence of most of these moments, but speaking of phones, a prescription for any laugh-deficient Londoners: voice-note your BFFs next time something makes you giggle (trust me, it’s contagious), and save the lol-worthy photos/videos/memes you do have in an album for next time you need a pick-me-up. I’m serious: you’ll thank me later.
Do we really need women-only network clubs?
New York women’s networking club Chief opens its first international outpost in London this month and women are reportedly queuing up for the chance to apply for access to the £8,000-a-year Bloomsbury clubhouse and talks from some very influential women (speakers in the US have included Amal Clooney, left, Diane von Furstenberg and Gloria Estefan).
“It’s 2023 — do we really need segregated spaces?” was the reaction from Lucy Harrison, ex-general manager of The Wing, a similarly A-list-attracting “feminist utopia” in Fitzrovia, which closed amid allegations of racism, exclusivity and abuses of power last year. Harrison’s comment might seem a bit rich, so why can’t I shift the feeling that she might be right? Is the antidote to the misogyny of old boys’ networks really just to set up a women’s one? Call me a bore, but I’m starting to feel that true progression might be ditching these exclusive, outdated, gender-specific spaces altogether.
