NO LAUGHING MATTER

I no longer listen to the news of the world. At 81, I am too old to risk getting depressed. Instead, I take a walk on the sunny side of the street and cast around for things that make me smile like funny animals on YouTube.

Laughter is a dangerous thing in even the best of times, let alone in 2026. Left unchecked, paroxysm of laughter might topple kings who wear no clothes, unmask politicians who swear to tell the truth, or churchmen who claim they are celibate.

This afternoon while sitting in the sun, I decided that what was wrong with this old world is that we don’t laugh enough. Our humors are out of balance we would say if we were living in the 12^th century and believed in such things. We need to get a humor adjustment. For example, do we need a few chuckles or is a chortle necessary?

Is a chuckle stronger or weaker than a chortle? Is it more at home as an aside or behind someone’s back?

A chuckle, I read, means to laugh quietly or inwardly so it definitely has a somewhat evasive quality. If so, was the chortle similarly reserved? That’s when I considered the different degrees and qualities of laughter. Where does the chortle chime in the humor spectrum?

The dictionary informed me that the word chortle was coined by none other than that master of mischief, Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass. He blended the word chuckle and snort making chortle a portmanteau word which means, I guess, you can take it anywhere. This observation gave rise to a tremor of amusement along my upper lip.

I resolved to go further down this rabbit hole looking for a chuckle only to discover that a chuckle is less than a chortle. Suppression is the defining characteristics to understanding the chuckle because the word chuckle originated in the 16^th century from “cluck” meaning to laugh convulsively.

The association of clucking with chicken is unavoidable so a chuckling chicken may be no laughing matter – but a cackle is. A harsh laugh said to resemble the cry of a hen or goose, so a cackle is right home in the humor henhouse.

Would our humor be better adjusted with a giggle? A giggle is a delightful sound, light, silly, and high-pitched, seeming to rise from the chest to the head and propelled through the nose. A chuckle, on the other hand, has a deeper, softer, more controlled expression that emanates from the throat. A giggle bubbles; a chuckle rumbles.

However, a giggle may, at times, be confused with a titter, both being light and airy. But while the giggle is provoked by delight, the titter can also be triggered by nervousness or a maiden-like embarrassment. Thus, we enter the darker side of merriment.

Not all laughter is kind. Just consider the snicker and the snigger. Snickering and sniggering are both sneaky words that are often accompanied by scornful glances and a mocking snort or two thrown over the shoulder in passing. All in all, there’s not much amusement to be found in snickering and sniggering, landing them in the infrared end of our humor spectrum.

In conclusion, I believe the safest route to the sunny side of the street where better mental health awaits is the all-purpose, good-for-any-occasion, smile.