International Mirth Month

What Is Mirth Month?

International Mirth Month was founded by Mr. Jollytologist or Allen Klein. He is the Real life Patch Adams (one of the many funny movies starring Roger Williams). International Mirth encourages everyone throughout the month of March to find humor everywhere and to turn stressful situations into laughable ones. Laughter is one of the many gifts instilled in us all and the gift of laughter has many benefits.

Through a quick search using our online databases, we have found that studies show laughter to be beneficial to our overall health dating far back. Using our Gale resources, under the Health and Wellness Resource center, we found an article written in 2014 referencing works as far back as the Old Testament Prov. 17:22, in which it stated that “A cheer-ful heart is a good medicine” (Wells, 2014).

And today we see the benefits of laughter in helping people who are stressed as well as helping those who are sick. Clowns, therapy dogs, and other influences have been around in hospitals to help those who are suffering from mild to life threatening sickness to laugh and feel the powers of laughter’s healing magic. So much so that a movie was created to show the healing powers of laughter: “ The benefits of laughter in treating the sick captured the public's attention in the 1998 movie Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams as real-life doctor Hunter “Patch” Adams. The movie is based on Adams' experiences treating the poor in rural West Virginia as related in his 1983 book Gesu.nd.heit!.”(Wells, 2014). Laughter has so many benefits. Today we see that those benefits still remain and are still being studied. Using the same Gale database to research the benefits of laughter we found an article published in 2018 discussing the many physical benefits of laughter on the body including: “Finding humor in life literally strengthens your immune system and increases your resistance to disease. A study published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine measured white blood cell activity in subjects before and after they watched humorous videos. They found that the health benefits of laughter linger long after the joke has ended” (Guirgus, 2018). There are many more studies to show that laughter is indeed the best medicine. Taking a moment to laugh in times of stress could very well be the best way to get through a tough day or even to help someone else to get through their day. Sometimes it is as simple as smiling at someone, cracking a tiny joke, or just saying hello.

A poet once said that laughter is the best medicine and studies have shown this statement to be truer than ever. So get your funny bones ready to laugh out loud as you check out some of these laughable reads:

Mirth Month Booklist

Resources:
Wells, K. R. (2014). Humor Therapy. In L. J. Fundukian (Ed.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 1202-1204). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3189900437/HWRC?u=mlin_c_worfree&sid=HWRC&xid=de3fc067
Guirgus, J. (2018, September-October). THE BEST MEDICINE: How Laughter Improves Your Health, Mood, Relationships, and Career. Vibrant Life, 34(5), 22+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A554494313/HWRC?u=mlin_c_worfree&sid=HWRC&xid=6020c4e5