I think the thing I enjoy the most is laughing.

It burns calories, raises my energy level and makes my day, no matter how horrible, somewhat better.

I am very easily amused and am afraid that if I share the top five things that make me laugh it may not help you at all, if you are need of a good laugh. But I think I am going to do it anyway. So here we go:

(5) Fainting goats. Yes, fainting goats. Just Google “fainting goats” and the search engine will give you an array of fainting goat goodness.

The fainting is apparently caused by a hereditary genetic disorder called myotonia congenital. Watch a video and you will believe…and laugh hysterically.

(4) Put http://www.uncutvideo.aol.com in your address bar and search for “attitude cats” and you will laugh so much it hurts…especially if you aren’t a cat person because quite a few of them end up crashing their faces into walls.

(3) “Anchorman,” “Super Troopers,” “Wedding Crashers.” Put any one of these into y”our DVD player and they are guaranteed to make you giggle.

The one-liners, the absurdly hilarious acting, frontal Kevin Heffernan nudity…what doesn’t sound funny about any one of those things? That’s what I thought.

(2) Dane Cook. His raw and extremely original kind of humor will have you crying tears of joy in no time.

He is one of the funniest comedians I have heard in a really long time. You can listen to either one of his albums, “Retaliation” or “Harmful if Swallowed,” or watch him perform live on one of his many HBO specials and also has his own MySpace page.

You can even catch him in some movie roles including him as one of the cooks in “Waiting” or go spend $7 tomorrow night and go see him in “Employee of the Month” (I’m not holding being in a movie with Jessica Simpson against him, but somehow I feel I should…just a little bit).

(1) And the number one thing that always makes me laugh happens to be quite a number of people.

No matter what, friends always come to the rescue when you are in need of a good laugh. If I am in a crummy mood, sad or just not my usual obnoxious self, something in their “Erin’s-not-feeling-as-happy-as-she-should,” radar goes off and the jokes and physical comedy start coming.

It’s almost borderline ridiculous what people will do to make you laugh, but it works every time.

I credit three-fourths of my life’s laughter to some very special people in my life and I am extremely lucky to have them.

So, if after you go through these five things and you still haven’t at least thought about laughing, I apologize.

But do not give up until you have either tried all five things in random order, five through one or one through five.

 

Erin Bass is a senior journalism major from Bossier City and serves as associate managing editor for The Tech Talk. E-mail comments to emb023@latech.edu.