laughing

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Mom Laughs During Daughter's Hearing, Gets Sent to Jail

She disrupted victim impact statement

(Newser) - A Michigan mom who laughed during her daughter's sentencing hearing for killing a man while driving drunk ended up in jail herself. Wayne County Circuit Judge Qiana Lillard scolded the family of 25-year-old Amanda Kosal for giggling while the dead man's sister gave a victim impact statement last...

At This Comedy Club, It's 38 Cents a Laugh

Barcelona venue using facial-recognition tech to spot guffaws

(Newser) - Audiences beware: If you laugh too much at this comedy club, you'll pay for it—literally. Barcelona's Teatreneu is using facial-recognition technology to charge visitors by the laugh, the BBC reports. Come to the club, and the seat in front of you will have a tablet tracking your...

Fake Laughing? Your Friends Can Tell

 Fake Laughing? 
 Your Friends 
 Can Tell 
study says
May 11, 2014 8:26 AM CDT

Fake Laughing? Your Friends Can Tell

It's all about your breathing sounds, experts say

(Newser) - If you're forcing a laugh after a bad joke, the teller probably knows it. Researchers found that people can identify a fake laugh two-thirds of the time: "Quite a few fake laughs sound pretty good, but listeners seem to pay attention to certain acoustic features that are really...

How You Can Win at Laughing

'Laughing championships' are an actual thing

(Newser) - It sounds like a joke, but a leader of the laughing competition movement says he's "quite serious." Events have been held in countries from Japan to the Czech Republic to the US; Pacific Standard recounts a recent event in Toronto. "We’re trying to demonstrate that...

National Laughing Contest Debuts in US

Contestants try to infect audience with laughter

(Newser) - Like laughing at nothing in particular? Then check out the American Laughing Championship when it debuts tomorrow in San Diego, reports the Huffington Post . The audience will determine which contestant is best at the Alabama knee-slapper, the maniacal laugh, and the diabolical laugh—the latter an attempt to make the...

For Contagious Laughs, Open Your Mouth

... And get your vocal chords into it

(Newser) - When it comes to laughs, the bigger the better, at least if you want it to spread. In one of those science-confirms-the-obvious studies, researchers found that open-mouth laughs in which people use their vocal chords in "vowel-like bursts" are the most contagious, LiveScience reports. And the longer they last,...

Rats Laugh When Tickled
 Rats Laugh When Tickled 
viral video
Apr 2, 2010 12:02 PM CDT

Rats Laugh When Tickled

And guess what? They like it!

(Newser) - A YouTube gem from 2007 is making the rounds again, teaching us something kind of neat and kind of gross: Rats laugh when tickled. When a Bowling Green University professor decided to try tickling the rodents, and then listening to their resulting high-frequency noises on a “bat detector,”...

Tongue-Tied Groom, Tickled Bride Storm YouTube

Hysterical wedding video attracts tens of thousands of views in just 2 days

(Newser) - An exchange of marital vows that took a break for hysterical laughter has become a viral-video hit, the Daily Mail reports. First a nervous Andrew Engstrom fumbles with the ring. When the celebrant asks him to repeat “to be my lawfully wedded wife,” he says “waffle-y”—...

Laughter Also Good Medicine for Orangutans

Study finds empathy, mimicry in primates' grins and chuckles

(Newser) - Humans aren't the only animals who laugh, according to a new study. Orangutans engage in a primitive form of laughing, the BBC reports—when one exhibits a facial expression such as an open, gaping mouth, and a companion displays the same expression less than half a second later. This sense...

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