1962, Africa: three schoolgirls started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. And so began an epidemic. That’s right, an epidemic of laughter spread across the land!
Unfortunately, as illustrated in a death-defying scene in the classic movie, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” a laughing fit can sometimes be serious.
The real-life episode that took place in Africa was also serious. After a couple of weeks a couple of hundred laugh attacks were reported in the girls’ home village of Nshamba.
“On 30 January 1962, an isolated fit of laughter started by three schoolgirls in a classroom in Kashasha village began to spread. Within a matter of weeks the symptoms of laughing, crying and agitation affected 95 of the 159 pupils, forcing the school to close on March 18. However, this did not solve the problem. The school reopened on May 21 but closed again shortly afterward as 57 further students were stricken.
Individual attacks could last from a matter of minutes to a period of hours and recur as many as four times, with symptoms persisting for an average of 16 days. No fatalities or long-term after affects were reported, although the attacks were temporarily debilitating and sufferers were unable to attend classes for a number of weeks.
The girls were highly agitated and often resisted any restraint. None of the teachers, two Europeans and three Africans, were affected,” writes John O’Connor in his article, “1962 Laughter Epidemic Extraordinary Events in Bukoba District, Tanganyika.”
It spread from Nshamba to Kashasha and then moved on to tribes bordering Lake Victoria in Tanganyika and Uganda.
About 1,000 people eventually found themselves in stitches!
“Quarantine of infected villages appeared the only successful method of impeding the epidemic’s progress,” the article continued.
What caused the epidemic? Laughologists haven’t a clue.
Very serious scientists searched for toxic gas and viruses but found nothing. They know that the laughter spread through families and among peers.
“The closer the relationship between victim and witness, the more likely it was the witness would become infected,” the article said.
In other words, laughter is contagious. Can you watch someone laugh without cracking a smile? Probably not.
