Laughter medicine: How stand-up can heal |
In the UK, new schemes to support mental health are introducing to people an unexpected skill: stand-up comedy.
Mohan Gupta had never dreamed of becoming a comedian. Born in India and educated in the UK, he trained as engineer and, later, a monk. "I never in my life thought I would make anyone laugh," he says.
But a few years ago, after suffering a nervous breakdown, Gupta's doctors prescribed him something unusual: a stand-up comedy course.
Laughter has long been linked to a variety of health gains: it can both reduce stress, and increase immunity, focus, and cardiovascular function. Yet research now suggests that not just consuming comedy, but actively creating it – especially in a group setting – can offer significant benefits to mental health in particular.
In the UK, new programmes are beginning to use stand-up comedy lessons to help people in distress. They come as part of a larger global movement of social prescribing: a process through which health workers refer patients to non-clinical, community-based resources and activities, as a way to both improve patients' long-term health and reduce pressure on healthcare.
Gupta, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was initially prescribed medication and hospital rest, received his social prescription through a course called Comedy on Referral – a 10-week programme teaching students how to write and perform a 10-minute comedy set about their lives. Launched in 2020, the course was the first of its kind to be funded and prescribed via the NHS.
Angie Belcher, the Bristol-based comedian who created and teaches the course, describes her goal as helping her students "find their banana" – their comedic source of pain, whether that's going through a divorce, struggling with parenthood, or recovering from abuse. "Your comedy doesn't come from the nice bits about our lives. It comes from the bits that are difficult," she says.
Finding the "funny" in something doesn't mean it's not serious, Belcher adds. "It's about doing what we need to do to get [through those difficult bits]."
That's what Gupta says helped him recover from his nervous breakdown and being admitted to hospital. He's found one of the course's greatest gifts has been connecting with his fellow comedians. "They got me out of myself, and they really did get me to make people laugh for the first time."
Laughter is one of our oldest survival tools, explains Ros Ben-Moshe, an adjunct lecturer at La Trobe University and author of the book The Laughter Effect. "From the East to the West, humour appears as a tool for connection, wellbeing and emotional support."
Ben-Moshe points to several historical examples of the restorative role humour played in early civilisations – including indigenous groups using clowns to relieve tension, and ancient Greek physicians prescribing visits to comedians. She attributes these anecdotes to the role humour plays in developing healthy societies and families. Early humans who laughed together formed safer, more cooperative groups, while parents and infants use laughing and smiling to strengthen their attachment, she explains. In both cases, "laughter reduces tension, signals safety, and helps maintain cohesion," she says.
"Humour is one of our most natural and accessible stress busters," she adds, pointing to the ways laughter triggers the release of mood-boosting neurotransmitters and hormones.
A wide body of research has explored this relationship between laughter and wellbeing. One small study from 1989 measured the blood samples of participants before and after they watched a humorous video; compared with the control group, they had significantly reduced levels of the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine. Another paper demonstrates how laughing produces........