A smile on one’s face is what we see as the most attractive gesture. To make it better, you turn to the dentist. Using dentistry skills, he or she guarantees you the courage to smile. Even though you might take laughing and smiling as gestures of healthy living, laughing for long may also lead to death. This might sound very astonishing to you, but this has really happened in earlier and modern history. Following are the stories of 9 most famous deaths due to excessive laughing:
• The most famous person to die of a fit of laughing was a Greek soothsayer, called Calchas. During the time of the Trojan War, he was growing some grapevines. Another soothsayer went by and said that Calc will never be able to drink this wine. Later on, when the grapes ripened and Calc made wine out of them, he invited the other soothsayer too. As they were sharing the wine, the soothsayer told Calchas about what he had predicted. This made Calchas laugh so hard that he died.
• The other story dates back to 5 BC. A Greek artist named Zeuxis was painting a picture of an old lady. When he was done, he started laughing, yet choked and died.
• In 3 BC, a Greek philosopher named Chrysippus died of laughing because he had seen a donkey eat figs.
• The next person to die of laughter is a Greek too! A person named Philemon used to write Greek comedies. One day as he was reading one of his own jokes, he found it so funny that he got a fit of laughter and eventually died.
• In 1556, an Italian author Pierto Arentino was listening to a story that his sister was telling him. As he was listening to it, he found it so hilarious that he experienced a fit of laughter that pushed him back in his chair, and later he died of apoplexy.
• Another strange story is that of a Scottish writer Sir Thomas Urquhart, who died laughing on the restoration of Charles II’s throne in 1660.
• In 1782, an English lady called Mrs. Fitzherbert went to watch The Beggar’s Opera in the Durry Lane Theater. As she saw the character ‘Polly’, she couldn’t control her laughter and moved out of the theater. She remembered the event, and experienced hysterics. Recalling the event, a few days later she died.
• In 1975, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Mitchell were watching their favorite TV show, ‘The Goodie’s’. Mr. Alex saw a scene which made him laugh for half and hour, and then experienced a heart attack. His wife later wrote a thank you note to ‘The Goodie’s’ for making the last moments of her husband happy.
• The most modern death is of a Danish audiologist in 1989, called as Ole Bentzen. As he watched the movie ‘A Fish Called Wanda’, he started laughing on the John Cleese’s scene. He laughed so hard that his heartbeat increased to 200 to 500 beats per minute. As a result, he experienced a heart attack and died.
