Laugh Till You Die

Aside from dying in your sleep, dying of laughter might seem like the perfect way to go. Death may result from several pathologies that deviate from benign laughter. Infarction of the pons and medulla oblongata in the brain may cause pathological laughter. Laughter can cause atonia and collapse ("gelastic syncope"), which in turn can cause trauma. See also laughter-induced syncope, cataplexy, and Bezold-Jarisch reflex. Gelastic seizures can be due to focal lesions to the hypothalamus. Depending upon the size of the lesion, the emotional lability may be a sign of an acute condition, and not itself the cause of the fatality. Gelastic syncope has also been associated with the cerebellum.

The Greek soothsayer, Calchas, was said to have died of laughter during the Trojan wars. When planting grapevines he was supposedly told by another soothsayer that he would never get to drink the wine he produced from his grapes. Once the wine was eventually made and ready to drink, Calchas invited the soothsayer along. After the soothsayer repeated his prophecy Calchas began a fit of laughter that resulted in him choking to death!

Chrysippus

Other famous Greeks to have reportedly died in this way are the philosopher, Chrysippus, who died of laughter after giving his donkey wine to drink and then watching it attempt to eat figs, the Greek painter, Zeuxis, who was laughing at one of his own paintings of an old woman when he choked to death, and the Greek writer of comedies, Philemon who is said to have died laughing at the telling of one of his own jokes!

The British have also notched up a small tally of such deaths. The Scottish writer Thomas Urquhart supposedly died laughing when he was told of the restoration to the throne of Charles II. An English widow, Mrs. Fitzherbert, joined in a throng of laughter at the theatre one night in 1782 while watching The Beggar’s Opera. Apparently she was forced to leave the theatre when she became unable to stop laughing. The woman’s hysterical laughter is said to have continued until she died two days later. 

On 24 March 1975, Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching the "Kung Fu Kapers" episode of The Goodies, featuring a kilt-clad Scotsman battling a vicious black pudding with his bagpipes. After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter, Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and died from heart failure. His widow later sent The Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments of life so pleasant.

In 1989, a Danish audiologist, Ole Bentzen, died laughing while watching A Fish Called Wanda. His heart was estimated to have beaten at between 250 and 500 beats per minute, before he succumbed to cardiac arrest.

In 2003, Damnoen Saen-um, a Thai ice cream salesman, is reported to have died while laughing in his sleep at the age of 52. His wife was unable to wake him, and he stopped breathing after two minutes of continuous laughter. He is believed to have died of either heart failure or asphyxiation.