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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Tim Conway and Harvey Korman trying not to laugh during skits on the Carol Burnet Show,

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I just heard a memorial episode of Car Talk from the week when Tom Magliozzi died. The first ten minutes or so consists of the boys unable to finish a sentence because they're laughing so hard. Tom's laugh is infectious. Later, their mom comes on a show, and she laughs just like him.Fabulous stuff.

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Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther movies. His ridiculous accent and bumbling ways has endeared the character to me for many years! His sidekick Cato’s extraordinary martial arts skills are quite the sight.

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You are correct, Steven. It’s been a difficult week.

I met with an old friend - we’ve known each other since we were kids (60 years ago!) - and we never skip a beat, even though she lives 40 miles away. We laughed about our memories growing up. We laughed about when her little brother peed through our basement window. We laughed about when our parents had a block party, and my older sister “babysat” us even though she had her teenage friends over.

I’m reminded of the Foo Fighters song (because I’m Songgirl):

It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these you give and give again

It's times like these you learn to love again

It's times like these time and time again

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

A wonderful message at this time. Thank you for posting it.

When we live in joy, the world around us changes.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Thanks so much for reminding me to find laughter! I have been awash in pain, grief and depression during the last week. While there are many moments that have brought laughter, we only have to say Robin Williams and it brings a smile. This skit continues to bring much laughter! https://youtu.be/9IUSM4EKcRI?si=xEAPFbFrYcet3aBW

Thanks again!!

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Anything that George Carlin says.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

I'm a huge Monty Python fan. The humor that I embrace is the absurdities in life, in reasoning, impulsivity, and the joy from considering the Gonzo alternatives. It's every where begging to be recognized and appreciated ! Who doesn't enjoy a spontaneous belly laugh !

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Steven,

I always set aside time to laugh. Any Mel Brooks film will do it, as well as the Airplane and Naked Gun movies. Seinfeld, Cheers, Frasier, and Boston Legal are shows that we binge watch for laughs. Older shows like Carol Burnett with her, Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway, and Harvey Korman kill me, I about hurt myself laughing at their skits. Likewise, Steve Martin and Marin Short are great together, I love Only Murders in the Building. We were at our favorite watering hole for brunch last Sunday and we were talking about something we saw and it triggered such loud belly laughter from me that a man came over and said “if people can laugh like that I got to get to know them.” He was a retired Army Colonel, whose son is now an Army Major. It turns out that we graduated and received our commissions from ROTC both in 1983, and served in some of the same places in Germany. Laughing can also help make new friends.

All the best.

Steve

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Cats make me laugh. There’s almost nothing as hysterical as watching a cat cooly walking across the room and get startled by some imaginary thing, do a three-foot vertical leap, and land as it continues to cooly continue walking. Yes, they can be jerks, but they also bring so much life and joy.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Johnny Carson throwing the tomahawk with Ed Ames on Tonight Show.

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I always laugh at anything Tim Conway and Harvey Corman did, but especially a Tim Conway bit with the Siamese elephants on Eunice and Mama - i don't care how many times i see i laugh hysterically. It's good to laugh, cleanses the soul and now we need something - what's going on in the world and in our country is sad - so sad - as a Jew it is particularly disturbing to see what's going on in Israel, but I truly believe they will sort it out and be successful - and I hope with not too many casualties- i feel for the Palestinian people who have no place to go and are not at all at fault for what Hamas has done to them. So hard as it may be now to laugh, try to find something that at least makes you smile. It does cleanse the soul.

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For several year I worked for a pre-k program. It was a six week summer program where we got five-year-old kids ready for kindergarten. One day, during play time, I heard an argument begin between a young boy and girl playing with the doll house. "No, no, no," the boy said emphatically. "My daddy says you can't have any babies unless you are married." A few minutes later, I heard them both humming the wedding march. Then they both began happily planting babies around the house. Working with kids always makes me laugh.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Farley and Swayze playing Chippendale dancers on SNL. I laugh until I cry! And the dentist skit on Carol Burnett with Harvey Norman trying unsuccessfully not to laugh.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Chuckles The Clown scene, Mary Tyler Moore. "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants." Hilarious.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

All the posts remind me of all the zany absurd stuff of TV and movies--how can you not love Peter Sellers or the SNL skit about Sweaty Balls? But, I have come to realize how hilarious my own life's gaffes have been gut bustingly funny now, even though "then" probably left me shaking my head in regret. So, what I laugh about now everyday is how stupid I can be, past, present and future--and I'm reminded that a sense of humor is one of life's greatest gifts!

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Chris Katan played Mr. Peepers in a skit on SNL. I don't remember what season, but I always belly-laughed watching it.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Any Mel Brooks movie, especially those with Gene Wilder, and the TV version of the Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

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Some of the old Saturday Night Live routines with Gilda Radnor, John Belushi, Steve Martin, and others. Sometimes I watch Johnny Carson on Antenna TV channel.

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Farley lives in my heart because of that sketch. And yes! Sacha Baron Cohen in everything I’ve seen him in. Let me contribute Christopher Walken as the Continental or any send-up performance he’s blessed us with.

So many but if I want to actually cry laughing it’s the entire Raising Arizona film and the entire cast therewith. Epic. Or Charlie Murphy’s stand up recollections of his early life guarding his brother.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

I’m so very fortunate to have smart and funny people in my life: spouse, kids and grandkids, co-workers. Red Green’s duct tape fixes and Stephen Colbert’s “Meanwhile” segments are simply silly good fun. And Colbert’s monologues make me laugh, instead of cry, at the state of our politics.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

If you haven’t been reading Jay Kuo each day, you may have missed his Saturday posts where he assembles a whole bunch of tweets, memes and hysterical animal bits that have come up during the week. So many are laugh out loud funny. Plus his daily posts can ALMOST make sense of the nonsense the retrumplicans are doing day by day.

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Monty Python

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Thank you for a happy post, Steven. I'm with you - I'd forgotten what it was like to laugh freely, hard, and long. I realized it as friends and I saw Craig Ferguson in Tucson ( his "favorite place in the whole world on a Sunday night at the Fox Theatre" to which the entire audience replied, "Yeah, right."). His entrance to "Everybody Dance Now" prancing around while playing bagpipes started the show off with belly laughs that didn't stop for ninety minutes. My ribs still hurt...

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The movie "Best in Show." Never fails to make me LMAO!

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Love Matt Foley!!! Really love watching Waiting For Guffman or This is Spinal Tap also!!

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founding

My go to for laughs is my husband...he just says the silly things that launch me into a giggle fit! :D There are quite a few movies/show scenes for us that always deliver -- many things Monty Python, and, as Claire points out, most everything Carol Burnet Show :D . Mel Brooks movies are continuously hysterical--Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles and always at the top of the list. And finally, Airplane -- being pilots -- we have probably watched that movie a 100+ times and still laugh like the first time. "Laughter is the Best Medicine" - even if it only cures you for the time you are laughing.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Eddie Murphy Delirious and Raw get me crying even though I know every line by heart

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

It's easy to laugh at the Republican clown show now playing in Congress, but that's a bitter, tragic, unsatisfying laughter.

I prefer a drier humor. My favorite types of jokes and one-liners are the kind that requure you to think a minute before get it. Winston Churchill and Benjamin Franklin were masters of the one-liner.

For me, Bob Newhart and Bea Arthur are icons.

I really miss Doc Martin.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

It too has been way too long since I really laughed. For me, Monty Python skits make me laugh, as do the early "Dresden Files" books, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and "Good Omens."

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Victor Borge without a doubt. Any one of his performances.

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I’ve recently been laughing at the old Bugs Bunny cartoons that were on TV when I was in elementary school in the 60’s and 70’s - the good old non-politically correct ones!

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I'm a "Three Stooges" fan and with that is ridiculous in their comedy. I somehow walk away feeling better.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

I was having a downer day and then Steven’s question restacked. Feeling better sharing all these different likes and stories. Thanks!

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

You must look up John Mulaney’s The Salt and Pepper Diner. I laugh so hard I can’t breathe.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

My friend, Anne Bellov, the artist, who is a member of Substack, and writes and draws satire using pandas as her subject. She has just finished writing and drawing about the Fat Bear contest in Alaska. Her writings on Substack now are featuring her parody of “The Wizard of Oz.”❤️🐼

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founding

I think it's critically important that we find time to laugh, particularly now as our country—and the world, face difficult times.

First and foremost, my husband is my source of laughter, each and every day. We often just laugh at the absurdity of current politics, perhaps to ease the tension. Lately, we wonder if we should be worried when we both cackle like lunatics at the gory parts of actions movies—of course, when the bad guy gets it :-)

I also have a close friend of many years, that though we don't talk as often as I'd like, whenever I do, we both laugh until one either snorts, hiccups, or barks with laughter. This type of closeness is always to be treasured.

I read through the replies, and what wonderful examples of past and present comedic actors and/or comedians. I don't think I could list a favorite, but do have one I always watch Mon-Thur nights, Steven Colbert. I missed him terribly during the writer's strike; he has a unique ability to address the craziness in today's politics and make us laugh about it until we have tears running down our faces.

Bottom line, it doesn't matter if it's a favorite comedian, movie, TV show, book, family member or friend that makes you laugh, make sure to do it every day.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Some times it’s just doing something silly. One night, very late, I was playing Blockhead with my brothers in law. It’s a mindless game where you take turns adding an oddly shaped block to a towers of blocks. Whoever knocks the tower down is the blockhead. The whole thing was totally silly. We couldn’t keep from cracking up. We’re all pretty serious guys so it gave us a chance to have some time outside of our normal roles.

Great question!

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

My kids (all adults). When we get together it’s oftentimes laugh-out-loud at some of the dumbest stuff you could imagine. Nobody else would understand, sometimes I’m not even sure I do. And I mean laughing uproariously in restaurants to the point the people next to us probably think we just escaped from the nearest mental institution 🤣

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

The Honeymooners golf scene: Art Carney line as he addresses the ball, "Hello Ball!"

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

Two movies that always bring me laughter come to mind. Father of the Bride with Steve Martin and Mrs. Doubtfire with Robin Williams.

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It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Full stop.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss

BBC movie “What we did on our Holiday” available on Amazon prime with David Tenet and Rosamund Pike. Really funny with a deeper meaning underneath.

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I have been living with my older sister since late March 2020 after I returned from a 2 1/2-month health scare. We have always been close and are both single. But now? We are like an old married couple; we finish each other's sentences and thoughts. And we will have the exact same thoughts about a scene in a movie, for instance, that makes us remember another scene from a much earlier movie and when one of us starts to say, "This reminds me of..." the other will invariably finish the thought. This has reduced us to tears in some cases particularly when the "memory" is from 50+ years ago and had never once crossed our minds until that exact moment.

Some of the biggest laughs come when my siblings and I recall good times from our youth. My younger sister has been known to add, "I was only one at the time so I don't remember any of that!" While I was in a continuing care facility in February 2020, my two sisters and four of my cousins came and spent a Friday evening hanging out in my room. Oh, the memories and laughs we shared that night made my stay a little easier. (They did most of the talking while I just laid in bed and laughed along with them.)

As for what other things brings me to tears: the aforementioned "Raising Arizona" and the Ed Ames tomahawk throw on The Tonight Show, the movie "Serenity" (the dialog is so funny [Define "bad." "Oh, god, oh god, we're all going to die?"]), the sketches from The Carol Burnett Show (particularly the elephant story when only Conway stays in character) and Monty Python, any Victor Borge performance. The list can be endless.

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I have a friend who used to be a standup comic and when we get together he likes to riff, so I end up doubling over with laughter. I wish he knew what a gift he has and should keep sharing it, but oddly enough I don't think he realizes what joy he brings to other people.

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Politically incorrectly I laugh at people’s terrible tattoos. (Never lose hoop) (Melattica! Nothing else mattress!)

(Nolege is power)

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Gilda Radner and Candace Bergen Extremely Stupid SNL skit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-5FwVv5Udo

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Video clip of Tubervilles falling on Kuo’s xeets and giggles, got a full belly laugh out of me today. The wicked is catching!!

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I just read John Scalzi’s latest novel, Starter Villain, and one scene in particular made me put the book down and laugh loudly so long I had to stop reading. It’s unusual for a book to provoke such full-on laughter for me. Not to give too much of the story away, but it’s when the dolphins, who have newly unionized, sing “Look for the Union Label” together. Read it!

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Mash. All of the seasons.

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