Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hey, you know, a weird thing happened to me last night. I was watching some movie where the main character was laughing a lot, and I caught myself thinking: what if you laughed, like, for a full day, non-stop? The thought of it was so funny for some reason that I actually started laughing, and… couldn’t stop myself. So there it began. At first, it was kinda fun. You know it — when you laugh, you basically ARE having fun, endorphins filling your bloodstream and all that. Although it might’ve looked weird, since I was home alone and laughing hard at nothing, I didn’t really care at the moment. I was feeling good, and the whole affair didn’t even seem a nuisance. After about 5 minutes I started realizing I wasn’t going to stop, after all. It was probably the longest bout of laughter in my entire life. What was yours? Feel free to share in the comments — you’ll never beat my record anyway. So, like I said, 5 minutes in, and I’m still chuckling like crazy. Okay. 10 minutes. 15… That’s where I began really worrying if everything was alright with me. It was 10.45 pm, I was going to go to bed in another 15 minutes, but my educated guess (through all the shaking from laughter, right) was that I wasn’t going to sleep tonight. Anyway, I just lay down, turned off the TV and all the lights, and stared into the ceiling, hoping it would pass eventually. Should I even say it didn’t? More time passed, and I started feeling cramps in my belly. You know that feeling when your stomach muscles ache after you’ve laughed for a while? Now imagine you’ve been doing that for close to an hour! Laughter begins in the diaphragm, so my belly muscles felt as if I was doing crunches. I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I got up and started doing some chores — as good as I could in my condition. I cleaned my apartment, laughing hard. I washed all the dishes left over from dinner, still laughing like mad. I wanted to pet my cat, but it ran away from me in fear — no wonder, given that look on my face when I walked toward him. Finally, I sat down with my laptop and tried checking the email, but realized at once that putting the computer on my lap while laughing wasn’t the best of ideas. Loudly thinking lots of bad stuff through bouts of laughter, I put the laptop on the desk and got to work at last. Surprisingly, it went without much trouble, except occasional belly cramps and fits of weakness in my arms and legs. You know that feeling, when you’re laughing so hard you can’t do anything else because you’re suddenly too weak? That’s the thing: I simply felt wobbly. But it passed, and I returned back to work. I didn’t want to sleep, by the way, because all that laughing somehow boosted my system with good hormones. I spent the rest of the night in front of my computer, and when time finally came to get ready for work, I realized, at last, that I simply couldn’t go to the office like that. But I had no other choice, since if I’d tried to call my boss, all I could’ve done would be chuckle into the phone! On the other hand, how could I appear at work like this?! I decided to think about it while getting ready, not to lose time. I went to the bathroom and faced another problem: I had to brush my teeth, I usually do it before breakfast. I tried this way and that, but all I got was my bathroom mirror splattered with toothpaste. And the walls too. And myself. Having washed it all off, I went to cook breakfast, still thinking about how to show up in the office. It was only when I poured coffee into the mug that I realized I couldn’t actually drink it, or eat my eggs and bacon, for that matter. Still, I tried. You know, you can’t but wonder how surrealistic it should look when a guy’s laughing his pants off and trying to pour coffee into his mouth at the same time. Of course I ended up spilling it all over myself and being scalded in more than one place, but I, um, laughed it off. Well, at least I managed to chuckle with my mouth partly closed while chewing on the eggs. I’d already kinda got used to my condition by that time, so I went to change my clothes and almost left the apartment when I got a message that saved me from embarrassing myself in front of my colleagues and boss. It was my sister— she got into some kind of trouble with her car stuck in the middle of nowhere and nobody would help her. I grabbed this opportunity to write to my boss at once that I was having an emergency, and rushed off outside to help her. Now, driving through a busy city while laughing like a lunatic must be a scary sight. Once, I stopped before a red light, and someone stopped right beside me. I didn’t really pay attention until the other driver knocked on my window to ask me something. When I turned to him and rolled down the window, he looked at me for a moment and hit the gas so hard that his car’s wheels left skid marks on the road. Weirdo. I guess that’s me. Anyway, I managed to get to my sister in about two hours — she was far outside the city and sending me her GPS coordinates. She stood at the curb, waving at me, and while I pulled over, I was thinking fast how would I explain my attitude. Nothing came to mind, and then no time was left either — she approached my car. I went out (chuckling and trying not to laugh really hard), hugged her, and, just as I expected, she asked me what was so funny. I tried to answer that it was just my condition, but it was at that exact moment that my jaw started cramping from all the strain. I tried to force myself to stop laughing but it only made it worse. She leaped to help me, but I finally pulled myself together and got on to looking under the hood of her car. Still chuckling, of course. I think She got offended by my attitude, but I promised myself to explain everything to her later, and got down to repairs. I finished everything in about an hour, and She didn’t say a word to me in that whole time, hearing me laugh at her trouble. I tried saying something to her but got cramps in my jaw again, and she drove off without saying “goodbye” or even “thanks.” That was mean. I got back in my car and decided I’d skip the day at work completely — it was already past lunch anyway, so I went to some roadside diner where nobody knew me and very few people were inside. The waiter was puzzled by my behavior but didn’t say anything. Remembering my morning coffee accident, I took some water and food. I ate quickly, catching a few unfriendly glances my way, left the money on the table, and hurried to get away. But on the way to my car, a big man went out of the diner with a rolling pin in his hand. He wasn’t smiling. Bad sign. He asked me to share the joke so he and his brothers could laugh with me. I was just about to ask what brothers he meant when those showed up too — looking identical to him and with rolling pins of their own. Naturally, I couldn’t stop laughing, so I started answering something through chuckles, all the while backing slowly towards my car. I don’t think they understood what I was blabbering about, and they continued walking slowly and menacingly to me, but then I finally bumped into something hard. But it was also warm and… breathing? Definitely not my car, I thought and turned around. It was a unicorn! Wait, what?! What the..? …and that was the moment when I woke up with a start. It turned out I fell asleep while watching the movie and didn’t even notice it. Oh my. But you know what, I don’t wanna know anymore what it feels like to laugh for a full day. I’ve had enough, thank you very much. Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other videos I think you'll enjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life – and keep laughin’!
A2 BRIGHTSIDE laughing laughed chuckling belly couldn What If You Laughed for 24 Hours Straight 5 0 林宜悉 posted on 2020/03/06 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary