1920s Laughing Records Were Weird...

[@tgh2048]

This was used on a Walter Lantz cartoon (creator of Woody Woodpecker) about a man with high blood pressure trying to sleep with noisy laughing neighbors. Punchline was it turned out to be his doctor who diagnosed him, and the man literally exploded, then doctor and nurse went back to laughing and playing that trombone. Very strange.

[@jonwashburn7999]

Thanks for reminding me of what the cartoon was.

[@Layerboyz]

I thought of the same cartoon.

[@byzcath]

I thought about an MGM Tex Avery cartoon that has the same exact premise. I don’t know who’s came earlier, but the Tex Avery one was hilarious!

[@dave3657]

Once I heard it I remembered the cartoon. Spot on. 😂

[@michaelpalmieri7335]

I saw that cartoon on TV when I was a kid, and I found it again on KZbin a few years ago. It's called "SSSSHHHHH." It was made sometime in the early 1950s (I think) by the Universal-International studio, and it concerned a fellow named Mr. Tweedle, who plays the bongo drums in a jazz club band, until he can no longer stand loud horn playing and has a nervous breakdown. He goes to see a psychiatrist, whose wife is also his nurse. (Why a psychiatrist would have a nurse working for him I'll never know.) The doctor tells Mr. Tweedle that he's a very sick man, that if he doesn't get away from noisy horns, his whole nervous system will just shatter! "You'll just BLOW UP!" the doctor says. He recommends that Mr. Tweedle take a vacation somewhere where there's plenty of peace and quiet. Mr. Tweedle chooses a small hotel in the Swiss Alps, which, as the manager says "pride ourselves on quiet." Indeed, everyone tries to be as quiet as possible. The bellhop who shows Mr. Tweedle to his room bids him goodnight, not by words, but by small cards that say "Good night. Sleep tight. The Management." (As an extra sight gag, when the bellhop holds out his hand for a tip, Tweedle gives him only a quarter, causing the bellhop to walk away with an angry look on his face and hold up a card that reads "Cheapskate!") Inside the room, absolute quiet is insured by a clock that doesn't tick, but displays the words "Tick Tock" on its pendulum, two faucets in the bathroom that wrapped up in towels so they can't drip, thus avoiding the dripping sound, and even a light switch that doesn't make the clicking sound when it's turned off, but merely displays a sign that says "Click." Soon, Mr. Tweedle is fast asleep. But then, for some reason that's never explained, the other bellhops deliver a big meal and a slide trombone to the people in the room next to the one belonging to Tweedle, who's soon awakened by the sound of trombone playing and wild, uninhibited laughter. Tweedle tries everything he can think of to get the man and woman next door to quit making so much noise, but his efforts are constantly stymied. For example, he sends them a note telling them to "please stop blowing that horn," only to receive a note from them saying "Ah, shut up!" Finally, he can't take it anymore and has another nervous breakdown, running to the manager and crying out "My nerves, my nerves! Get me a doctor, quick!" Looking through the register, the manager finds a doctor -- who turns out to be the man in the room next door blowing the trombone! Not only that, but the doctor is none other than Mr. Tweedle's OWN PSYCHIATRIST, WHO'S ACCOMPANIED BY HIS WIFE/NURSE! "Mr. Tweedle," the stunned doctor says, "You, here?" Tweedle, of course, is FURIOUS that his rest has been ruined by the same psychiatrist and nurse who had specifically recommended that he go somewhere where there's peace and quiet, and he begins to fly into a rage! (Who can blame him?) "Now Mr. Tweedle," the doctor tries to warn, "remember your nerves. YOU'LL BLOW UP!" Mr. Tweedle DOES BLOW UP, his whole body completely disintegrated! But all the psychiatrist can say is, "Some people just won't take their doctors' advice." Then, as if they don't have a care in the world, he and his wife/nurse go right back to playing their trombone, laughing it up, and having a great time. You say this film was made by Walter Lantz, but I heard that it was written by "Tex" Avery.

[@PaisleyPatchouli]

Back in the 70s I worked as a touring musician, playing blues/rock in clubs and small concert venues. For some reason I had made up a cassette dub of a couple minutes of hysterical laughing which I think came from a Frank Zappa album. I extended it so that it played for around 15 or 20 minutes. Now, a lot of nights after the show, we'd retire to either a hotel or a band house and party on for several hours. Sometimes these revelries would get pretty rowdy, and somehow I decided that was the right time to put on the laughing mix. Everyone was pretty smashed at this point, and soon would all be joining in, gasping for breath and rolling on the floor; and after a while they were all pretty well spent and would pass out or retire to their respective rooms. I think that my laugh track cassette may have spared numerous band accommodations from certain ruin as things would have gotten rowdy and destructive instead of hilarious and goofy. Anyway, that's my recollection of 'laugh recordings' that were not exactly for public use, but rather for private 'therapy'...

[@LaineyTsang]

😂😂😂 Sounds like a good fkn time! 😂😂😂

[@holier_than_thou]

I wish you could upload it here.

[@PaisleyPatchouli]

Haha, I wish I still had it. I haven't heard it in decades...

[@holier_than_thou]

@@PaisleyPatchouli how about a recording of you all laughing to the recording? Even that would be interesting.

[@PaisleyPatchouli]

This was all several decades ago. I haven't even seen any of those guys in 40 years, let alone still have that laughing cassette. It would truly be a time travel event... @@holier_than_thou

[@velvetbees]

The scary man in the thumbnail photo is Conrad Veidt, "The Laughing Man". He was actually quite handsome, but played in a lot of horror movies. He was also well known in the silent and talkie movies as a dramatic actor.

[@jgant6841]

Thank you I was wondering and I knew someone would mention it in these comments. The movie was called The Man who laughs, for anyone else looking for it.

[@richardjohnson9543]

​@@jgant6841His appearance in that role was also the visual inspiration for the Joker

[@mrg8581]

​@@richardjohnson9543 I thought it was the Joker.

[@annermiraval8598]

​@@mrg8581Maybe DC Comics try to catch that idea to the evil character.

[@jonathanbeatrice8317]

@@annermiraval8598 The Joker is totally based on that character.

[@solotraveler3]

My granddad had several of these 78RPM record. As a kid I would listen to over and over. Even in high school I'd play it for friends. They where nothing more than silly fun. No need for a set up, no need to be stoned, no need for talking or a story. Just fun.

[@lestercarter116]

Actually, I think being stoned while listening to this would be a blast!

[@houseofsolomon2440]

​@@lestercarter116Or get freaked the [----] out lol

[@1neAdam12]

Ha

[@rubecork7102]

Perfectly understandable. It's all about novelty and the fact that records themselves were a novelty. It's like the love of playing pong on a TV console as the first form of video game. Or suddenly being able to put audio or video in reverse and slow motion. It's a thrill and then wears off.

[@lawrencecarlstrom3465]

I just listened to the original Okeh sound track. I was shocked by my own reaction. Before I was even halfway into it, I started cracking up and couldn't help laughing along. There's no mystery. People liked it because they liked to laugh.

[@bradparker9664]

That is fascinating. I should try that because the little clip in the video just annoyed me. Maybe giving it time would make a difference.

[@Truelib99Hobbes]

These were probably used to set the mood on PA systems for bars or comedy theaters or movie theaters. Played at a low level, it would likely lighten the mood. It's the 1920s version of a hype man.

[@paulaharrisbaca4851]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKekeIGJf5yKqMUsi=etGBDXWrht_oVA6L&t=31 You were saying?

[@rexrabbiteer]

I think it’s because people make funny sounds when laughing. Some people have a weird way of laughing which makes me laugh too lol

[@kennyhogg5820]

My first thought was it was used to get a laughing response from the listener. Great for putting you in a good mood.

[@cjod33]

In India, people gather in public places for laughing sessions. They just start to laugh and it catches. Before you know it your in the middle of 50 or more laughing at themselves, everyone and anything. It's a great healer!

[@suzybearheart530]

When I was a kid, sometimes groups of us would play "the laughing game" where we'd all lay on the floor, heads resting on each other's bellies. One of us would start laughing and see how long it took until we were all laughing. It was really silly but so fun!

[@PaisleyPatchouli]

@@suzybearheart530 Yes, we played that game too. We called it "Chuckle Belly". :-)

[@suzybearheart530]

@@PaisleyPatchouli I like the name Chuckle Belly - it is so accurate. 😅

[@dickiegreenleaf750]

Mental illness.

[@mickyboymccoy7632]

Are you in the middle with your pants pulled down?

[@DerBingle1]

This is brilliant! The laughter is infectious! I suffer from sevier depression and now I'm going to listen to these...like all the time.

[@dawnmayhew2844]

Yep me too 😢😅

[@orionova]

I'm a radio DJ with a comedy music show, and I have used the Okeh Laughing record for my promos. It just makes me smile.

[@richardgillette5759]

you are a psychopath

[@ZenHaircut]

Laughter is infectious; especially the laughter of babies. The Crying Records make me want to laugh as well. They remind me of times when I take life too seriously and/or feel sorry for myself. Well, witnessing that in the third person makes me laugh at myself more than at anything else.

[@mickyboymccoy7632]

So are herpies, whats your point?

[@Tai925]

Personally, I find the crying records funnier than the laughing ones. The laughing ones are more creepy

[@jsizemo]

In a sense this did survive in different form, as in laugh tracks for early sitcoms, the ones not “ filmed before a live studio audience”

[@raeraebadfingers]

That's what I was just thinking like "what they kinda still do that right?" 😅

[@BillyBanter100]

Over here in Britain we had 'The Laughing Policeman'. A great old recording that's still entertaining to listen to.

[@Bella-fz9fy]

Yes,that was an old music hall number by Charles Jolly😅 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnqUn4OabM2YsK8si=BBDE0_SiH5375BjP

[@RobertJarecki]

Is this the recording you are thinking of? It's here on KZbin: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5mnfKGIiLJ0rbMsi=SWBqxXrZZKS-71_F

[@FreihEitner]

100 years from now I believe people will be having the same confusion over 2010s/2020s KZbin "reaction" videos -- watching someone exaggeratedly reacting while watching something else.

[@ShannonLee1956]

I'm already confused by this!

[@erikwinkelman4668]

…or muckbang videos.

[@Jakob-zs1qu]

You think this planet will make it another 100 years? Highly not

[@JuniorPolancoLaCoalicion]

I have never found any sense in reaction videos, no need to wait 100 years😂

[@StarfishSavvy]

Laughing is contagious- mood lifter. Not so creepy. I get it.

[@jbello9398]

😂😂😂 exactly

[@Chalwa]

It’s not creepy at all. It’s just fun silliness. Your modern filter of old timey trends is biased.

[@worstcaseofcrabsever5510]

They played it during a party as background music.

[@prudencepineapple9448]

Always great to see Conrad Veidt and 'The Man Who Laughs (1928)”

[@uticacrib1664]

Something to play for the neighbors when you go on vacation.

[@gavinlew8273]

Why would you prank your neighbours like that?

[@WallBreakerOfficial]

The Laughing Records was one of the earliest distributed meme's. Much the same way short form content meme's work today. They tend to blow up and then fade into obscurity while we chase on to the next goof.

[@marlenasimpkins8265]

My GMA used this method during depression era cause it eased her depression. Laughter is contagious

[@BritInvLvr]

I remember hearing laughing records on Dr. Demento’s radio show. Very weird.

[@skagi4182]

m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHfUi5uXmdypfZI

[@geoffc376]

Amazing! Listened to the Dr. for years back in the 70's - 80's. He has a website with archives dating back to 1970. (paid subscription.) Thanks for resurrecting the memories!

[@timmmahhhh]

I first heard it on the Walter Lantz record then on Dr. Demento where I found out the name of the recording. I have probably 25 cassettes of his show I recorded off the radio, including this track on one of them.

[@ChrisMezzolesta]

@@geoffc376 It's actually pay as you go which is nice, no need to be afraid of a large cash outlay if that's a problem, like 2-3 bucks a show!! Still Deeeeemented!

[@maxi-me]

Jean Shepherd used this record a lot on his radio show in the late 60s. He'd have some non sequential dialog and respond to the laghter, sometimes even laugh along hysterically. Really creepy and brilliant at the same time.

[@Gen_X_Rosey]

That creeped me right the heck out. As morbid as it is, I was thinking, "All those people are dead, now." That made it even creepier, believe it or not.

[@vincentlara4563]

Yup, indeed that certainly did make it creepier! 😁😁😁

[@riverlove6820]

I think it's cool that their laughter lives on. I wish I had recordings of my Grandmother's laugh and a few other friends/family that have passed. But the most infections laughter is baby laughter and I will crack up every time.

[@scented-leafpelargonium3366]

I remember Laurel & Hardy doing some unstoppable laughing in their films and it is infectious! They were very good at it. The Bible says in the Proverbs of King Solomon that: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." 🤗😆😅😂🤣😃😀☺

[@aariley2]

Would be cool for Halloween or a guest room if your guests won't leave!😂

[@borderlands6606]

Recordings lived on in amusement arcades, with the Laughing Policeman. A coin in a slot animated a policeman or sailor doll in a glass booth, who laughed for a couple of minutes. These existed in the UK until at least the 1980s, possibly later, when they became collectable. The German recordings were made shortly after the end of WW1, and reflected the need for fun in a broken Europe, as well as a certain cynicism at the loss of old certainties. The first talkies (1920s movies with sound) had a fascination with laughing, crying and screaming.

[@valfletcher9285]

I used to have a laughing box novelty in the 70's when I was a kid and I LOVED it! It is HILARIOUS...Lofty and "a gas" and I can see how his fits into a 1923 vibe!!!

[@maxi-me]

Oh shit! Just remembered something like that my dad brought home! Looked like an odd shaped flesh colored transistor radio. Inside was a bright red clear record inside. Just laughing.

[@gretaeberhardt541]

@valfletcher9285 Oh my gosh, but for your comment I wouldn’t have ever remembered those. My neighbor had one and we had such fun with it, life was good back then. Such a silly thing, but good memory of a simpler, better time.

[@maxi-me]

@gretaeberhardt541 Yes but sadly we all moved on, once _Stretch Armstrong_ and _Lite-brite_ hit the scene....🤣

[@muppetonmeds]

I have one it is called a laughing bag and it's in a small cloth bag.

[@HeadNtheClouds]

Yes, a laugh box! I had one too 😂

[@Lonovavir]

My favorite 1920s trend was the dance marathon. Marathon biking is a close second.

[@michaelfitzgerald3467]

I like the goldfish swallowing, and the one that can no longer be replicated: stuffing the phone booth!

[@robertfitchett-o6n]

certainly creepy in the dark room vibe. sheer novelty is often a fast seller, usually quickly forgotten, but interesting nonetheless. thanks for this. cheers,

[@RandomRetr0]

I think they’re creepy but probably weren’t back then. There is one that does make me laugh, The Laughing Policeman

[@michaelpalmieri7335]

​@@RandomRetr0 "The Laughing Policeman" is also the title of a crime movie from 1973, starring Walter Matthau as a San Francisco police detective who's investigating a mass murder of eight people on a bus.

[@jmbuff1]

Reminds me a little of those Billy Bass plaques from the late 90s that were so popular for a hot second. You press that red button and the fake fish starts singing at you. At the time it seemed so hilarious but I saw one recently and couldn't believe I ever thought it was even slightly entertaining. That's how old trends go a lot of times.

[@timvandenbrink4461]

Lol. My kids were frightened to death by that thing, it’s hanging in our boat house now.

[@namco003]

I listened to a station called the 1920s radio network in my car, as they played music between 20s-40s, but Sat/Sun night was old time radio shows, mostly comedies. It remained as my default station for about 12 years, until they changed formats for that station. I used to listen to the station at home on Winamp before that. It still runs as an online radio station. SUBBED

[@KoolKman]

For me, possibly the weirdest and bizarre laughing arrangement came from a cartoon in 1934 (sorry not the 1920s) called 'Betty Boop - Ha! Ha! Ha!" It has Ko Ko the clown with a tooth ache after eating too much candy then Betty tries to pull it and can't, then decides to 'turn on' the laughing gas bottle which sends Ko Ko into hysterics, eventually the gas spreads and Betty flips followed by the clock and the typewriter (really weird) then out the window onto the street where everybody and everything goes into uncontrollable laughter - the mail boxes, cars, graveyard stones.. then finally they jump back into the ink well and it too ends up laughing then just dies in exhaustion? Weird but fascinating for me.

[@artimusgarcia-cuellar8026]

I love your channel! Keep it up!

[@langyd4518]

This has roots that go farther back, in the days where there was no entertainment except for recitation, oration, opera and instrumental music. This comes out of the old recitation style of entertainment in the 1800’s when a woman would stand up in front of an audience and tell/act out a story for them. the emotions like anger, sorrow and laughter were acted out in certain parts of the story and were exaggerated to entertain the audience

[@djhrecordhound4391]

IIRC, ads of the time stated "How can you not laugh at your phonograph when your phonograph is laughing at you?"

[@malfattio2894]

There was a similar trend of "Laughing Songs" in the 1890s/ 1900s. "The Laughing Policeman" is one of the better known examples.

[@Rawhide68]

Laughing is contageus, so maybe they played it to get in a good mood 😃?

[@LTPottenger]

I play it on a loop so people will think I'm having a party.

[@Broadway789]

I have an OK Laughing Record 78 as well and play it on my 1914 Victrola. This very one you are playing.

[@88gair]

In circa 1970, there was a plastic battery powered laughing box that was popular...

[@coldwhiteguy]

Yeah, it was an endless loop recording of some guys raucous laugh that came in a little yellow bag called “bag of laughs”. On a cross country trip that summer with my family and my middle school best friend, my dad threatened to throw it out the window “ if you press that button ONE MORE TIME!” So we took the batteries out and my dad had to listen us laugh all the way to California and back to New Jersey.

[@jackmorrison7379]

Every decade has a gimmick or commercial fetish of short duration. In the 50's it was Hula Hoops, Pez candy dispensers, Davy Crockett fake fur hats, and a few other things. I'm glad to see you're doing a few videos on 1920's short-lived trends, starting with these laughing records. I wonder if the movies "He who gets slapped" with Chaney as a circus clown and that creepy movie about a surgically altered child with the perpetual grin "The Man who Laughs" with Conrad Veidt influenced this record trend.

[@skyjust828]

What about "pole sitting & goldfish swallowing"? 😂🤣😂

[@creech54]

Both of those movies were made after the original laughing record came out, so probably not.

[@beppo2814]

If anyone is curious about the guy at 3:17 who looks like the Joker, it's actor Conrad Veidt from the 1928 movie "The Man Who Laughs," and he's who inspired the creation of the Joker in 1940.

[@williamsmith5549]

This really was the Greatest Decade, ever!

[@MrMenefrego1]

This is such a remarkable production; it reminds me of the 'Streaking' fad of the '70s, gone and essentially entirely forgotten by virtually everyone ... except for us older folks who were there.

[@themaggattack]

Fun times!

[@Bringontheasteroid]

One worth a mention would be The Laughing Policeman, Charles Penrose 1922…a British music hall star…very well known and actually quite amusing.

[@skyjust828]

Laughter is truly great medicine ❣️ im sure during the great depression it helped many.😂

[@robertmiles1603]

Smile, though your heart is achin' Smile, even though it's breakin'

[@naturalcambion3747]

This is like a 1920’s Creepypasta.

[@EmilyTienne]

These records are just the best. I’d like to see some form of this return. Good, clean fun!

[@brandyjean7015]

I remember folks wasting money on pet rocks too.

[@susanpage8315]

I still have mine.

[@brandyjean7015]

@@susanpage8315 at least you got your money's worth!

[@johngranato2673]

My dad had one of these---you took me back to my childhood and the 1960's.

[@davidatkins1483]

I am a rather Avid record collector and I have a copy of the okay laughing record as well as the record titled spoiled cornet. I do not recall what label the second one is on. They have never really caught my attention. I always marveled at the idea of somebody actually buying a copy of that record. I think the only one I really enjoyed was the Spike Jones laughing record which was undoubtedly 20 years later

[@GretchenBostrom]

I had never heard of laughing records. So interesting.

[@LaineyTsang]

I was cracking up from the short samples in this video 😂😂😂😂

[@fireballninja01]

4:00 here’s the thing with talking machines of the era: they were statement pieces that were often hidden into their housings, serving as just another piece of ornate furniture. Imagine having guests over who aren’t too familiar with your house; and then playing that record. The cabinet is up close to a closet; and through the whole record you’re reminding the group that you all are going to join the main guests soon. Then it finishes, you look confused, then stark, at the silence, go to open up the closet, and give a dramatic “where did they go? what happened here this-this isn’t supposed to be here” as you open to just a closet. that would be an AMAZING prank. especially since talking machines were still a novelty. i really hope at least one person did this

[@MikeDial]

In the early days of KZbin there was a video of a baby laughing, a person laughing at the baby, and a succession of people, each laughing at the previous person. I laughed a lot just watching people laughing.

[@Richard-l9h8r]

This is why Im wanting to hear recordings of regular conversations from regular people in normal non acting situations in the 1920s. To see what odd trends in speaking there may have been

[@NorthshireGaming]

This reminds me of that Hispanic man who was telling the story of having to wash restaurant pans down at the beach and ultimately losing them, while laughing hysterically. Most people who saw that had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. But there was something deeply infectious with his laugh, which somehow, despite the language barrier, made the story relatable.

[@Henpitts]

Doctor Demento featured the coronet and laughing.

[@pembridgehouse]

In the 1950's we had a couple of laughing records and the kids in our street played them over and over in get togethers.They were just infectious.

[@velmi_malenkaja_zabka]

I would definitely own one of those, but I can imagine how annoying it was after several months of its popularity

[@BlameThande]

So what current trend is going to seem as strange as this in retrospect in a century's time? My vote goes to unboxing videos.

[@whistlingsage9817]

I think the ASMR had seemed very similar to the laughing record craze. Edit: I've been thinking about it, and I think the novelty factor with all of these things is that they entice an unwarranted physical response of some kind from out of the person experiencing the media, and that response isn't caused by the normal stimulus. For example, being compelled to laugh even though nothing funny has been said; feeling excitement and anticipation over the uncovering of a new thing even though you personally are doing nothing but watching a video. Getting a shiver when you hear a sound that seems close to your ear, when nothing is really there. All of these sensations have a novelty value. Kind of like when doctors used to tap patients knees with reflex hammers, which can only detect one rare form of nerve disease, but makes the patient feel that the doctor is doing something educated. It's kind of a thrill.

[@maxi-me]

Watching DoorDash drivers pick up food at a restaurant and drop it off on someone's porch. Over and over, episode after episode.

[@Poundz978]

I Vote for people pretending to be NPCs for twitch donations.

[@spankynater4242]

Kool-aid hair.

[@JackF99]

Nailed it. Next dumbest trend on YT are music reaction videos where someone reacts to a song that everybody in the world has heard a million times, pretending they've never heard it before.

[@Weaponsandstuff93]

The Laughing Policeman is the best one as it's sort of a song with the laughing combined.

[@euromayan]

At the dawn of recording sound a hundred years ago any common sound was amazing to hear at will (record player), now videos on youtube and Tik Tok are played at will and we all enjoy hearing and seeing them

[@CHESEABUN]

I remember as a child hearing an old record called “ The laughing policeman”

[@CHESEABUN]

1922

[@TheBearcub410]

Reminds me of my grandmother and her cousins talking about them and how much they loved them ❤

[@sallycormier1383]

I found the crying record made me laugh while the laughing records creeped me out. 😂

[@dench2695]

Ok, Sally.

[@erikt454]

It sounded like one or more cryer was starting to laugh at the end of the clip featured here, I thought...

[@raeraebadfingers]

They sure were trying to lament lol

[@kc4cvh]

Laughter is infectious, so it's unsurprising that at some point an entrepreneur realized it could be canned and sold. It did cause me to wonder: what is the earliest sound recording of spoken comedy? It seems that thirty-five years earlier Edison recorded a man named George Gouraud performing a comic monologue. Gouraud pretended to be a tiny voice within the machine, so it was also first to play upon the characteristics of a new medium.

[@MovieMakingMan]

Laughter is a smile with the volume turned up.

[@stumbling]

I can just imagine someone having a bad break-up, coming home and slapping on The Okeh Crying Record. xD

[@moonbeamskies3346]

I listen to these laughing records every day for an hour or two and they are the only recordings I have ever listened to. I am also a D.J. and play only these no matter what my clients want to hear, and despite telling them I have exactly what they want. So yes, I breach every contract I sign.

[@soarornor]

I love them. Didn’t know it was a thing until this video. This must be the idea behind the song “Laughing Blues” on Bonzo Dog Bands “Tadpoles” album from 1969 or thereabouts. Great album by one of England’s finest.

[@ChrisMezzolesta]

ex-Bonzo Roger Ruskin Spear later cut one called The Liberty Laughing Song on his Electric Shocks LP!

[@waffles3588]

deep dive❤🎉

[@waffles3588]

the bonzos are near and dear to my heart

[@soarornor]

@@waffles3588 Me too. 🌂🧳🎩😂👞🧤

[@Boddissatva]

Or Laughing by the Guess who!

[@fingerzfrienemy2226]

The 11th movement of Stravinsky Rite of Spring is evil laughter. Hear the entire piece and chants and screams too. 😅

[@SirSmoldham]

Anybody remember "Bag o' Laughs" from the 70's? Tim Burton's Joker died with one.

[@Dee-x9f]

As a kid in the 1970s, I had a gag toy called the Laugh Bag. It was a drawstring canvas bag and inside, there was a small electronic "voice box" with a big button. You'd squeeze the bag to press the button to make it laugh and... I swear, the laugh sounded like one of these records. I wonder if that's where they got the got the sound clip from.

[@sierramikain6671]

When i was a teenager, I used to have an idea to make something like this. I thought it would be a cool to make a recording of several people just laughing. The idea behind it was simple. LIstening to it would bring a smile to your face. Laughter is infectious I think and I'm honestly surprised that someone _hasn't_ done something like this and made millions.

[@bridgetdavis9752]

Thank you for a great video, I had never heard of this before. I wonder if they were for background, to make a party seem bigger, or a funeral, depending.

[@joeterp5615]

Future generations will look back with such seriousness on the whole TikTok era lol. These records were just goofy fun. Every era has there goofy fun. That’s life.

[@janerkenbrack3373]

I have a vague memory of a laughing record being a short-lived thing in the early 70s. I guess they float around. The idea is novelty and profit. Like the Pet Rock of the 70s, it was funny just to have one. People put the laughing record on at parties for a laugh. The crying record is more weird, and I can only think it was done for profit only. Catch the novelty and sell some more records. In the early part of the current century, the Russian Tralala man video was circulating the internets. It is a video of a man singing on the set of a TV variety show, and all the lyrics are tra las. It's hysterical. Novelty.

[@zerdda]

We had a laughing record when I was a kid - and I remember playing it for friends who thought it was so weird (it was), But, because it was something that came from my Dad's family, and he remembered his Dad listening to it and cracking up. Dad's father died in 1933, when Dad was 12. So , it was a nostalgic piece of family history. I don't know what happened to that record.

[@akatripclaymore.9679]

Remind's me of Monty Python's "the funniest joke in the world" from the meaning of life!😂😅😆🤣🤪

[@Donnie64inPa]

This reminded me of a Walt Disney Record I used to listen to as a child called "Haunted Mansion". One of the tracks was ghost laughing.

[@mao2233]

I hope you can answer a question cued by the illustrations in thsi video. You show an ad for the Okeh Laughing Record. In the ad it refers to the record being "a better cure than Munyon ever had!" I've tried researching it but got no results. Do you have any idea who Munyon is? If a commenter knows, could you share with us? I have a feeling this could be a source for another 1920sChannel video. Thank you for any help you may be able to give.

[@The1920sChannel]

That refers to James Monroe Munyon (died in 1918). He offered medicines to cure pretty much everything, many or most of which were questionable. He advertised all over the place in the US, so he would have been widely known by name.

[@mao2233]

@@The1920sChannel Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I now know who to look up. Very cool.

[@aquatarkus2022]

Reminds me of the "John and Marsha" record from the '60s.

[@yelloworangered]

It could be that people for the first time actually listened to laughter instead of participating. So it might have been funny because some of the laughs were odd. I remember back in the day when tv shows laid clapping and laughing soundtracks under shows. Someone eventually pointed out the odd booming laugh or the braying ha-ha that was heard over and over because the laugh track was looped to repeat. It's not an exact parallel, but I think there is something to the idea that people never had a laugh presented as deserving of a listen in a platform made for music. A novelty that created a new listening experience and may have had oddities in it that made it entertaining enough to listen to over and over.

[@Modeltnick]

I have an original copy of the Okeh laughing record and I can’t get past the first few seconds without turning it off. Yes, creepy and weird!

[@jeffmech600]

Laughing is contagious

[@commonpike]

Well, obviously ? People probably didn't know the sound of laughter by itself was contagious. And they liked that.

[@ericesquivel5485]

Playing that in a dark room is nightmare fuel

[@thomasferranti5310]

This is so odd. I'm glad you did a KZbin video about it. So think about it, have you stopped to imagine how many people had access to this 100 years ago? I mean, today, anyone can dial up whatever they want with something in their pocket. It it would probably have been many years before most people would be able to afford a record player. So, those that did have them in their homes, well it was quite the center of attention. No video game is, no internet, no television... So on those rare occasions when might have company, and one needed an icebreaker, if you put this record on, you'd have a room full of strangers laughing at it uncontrollably. Contagiously. Get it? And it's not creepy or scary or spooky. Creepy has changed its meaning about 20 or so years ago. It used to only be used to refer to an old abandoned house or something like that. Now it's changed its meaning to who knows what...

[@GeneSavage]

These just leave me feeling odd, maybe cringey is a better term. Some years later the Millionaire from Gilligan's Island, Jim Bakus, would end up on a similar record called "Delicious!" Very strange stuff. The only variation of this I've liked it a record from a number of years ago called "Laughing All The Way," which is a man laughing in time and in tune to Jingle Bells. That was pretty funny stuff!

[@michaelpalmieri7335]

I heard that "Laughing All The Way" recording on a record album I used to have called "Christmas Comedy Classics."

[@actioncom2748]

Pet rock of the 1920s! One wonders if there was a novelty pamphlet to go with the record.

[@jeenkzk5919]

I can see the appeal if someone feels down. Laughter is infectious after all. It’s difficult to find these records amusing nowadays as they were recorded so long ago. Definitely an interesting footnote in history nonetheless.

[@jonathanweir6084]

the writer from england, Lawrence Durrell talked about his friend at the boarding house they lived in would play a laughing record over and over as he was losing his mind. The book is called the Black Book.

[@magatow1906]

It makes sense that this would exist because audio recording was such a new technology then. And I wonder what other weird things were being recorded simply because it was possible to do so. In 100 years, imagine how people will see the ASMR videos KZbinrs are currently churning out. They will say "okay, tingles- we get it but it's kind of weird."

[@potato-phobia85yearsago27]

Certainly unsettling that these people are gone by now but their laughter will probably echo for hundreds of years.

[@vmtz2001]

Someone from the era of the internet where sounds effects are so readily available would never understand. Sound effects of all kinds were a novelty for special occasions or pranks even in the 90’s.

[@vancegilmore245]

It's a laugh track. It's used in television all the time. Laughter releases dopamine, and is contagious.😂

[@SpideyVids]

The Laughing Man has got to be the inspiration for The Joker - he looks almost identical.

[@davidwilkins3328]

He was

[@antiquebottlestories]

Learned something new today. Thanks!

[@stevefish3124]

The Okeh Laughing Record is the American releade of Beka's "Die Mißglückte Jugendzeit", The name of the song Otto Rathke tries to play on the trumpet is called "Aus der Jugendzeit", Obviosly, he failed and that's the pun. He also does the laughing along with Lucy Bernardo and is credited on the Beka record for writing the sketch.

[@dalesize6156]

What a coincidence, I just watched that cartoon this morning on me tv, by the end of it the laughing and horn was really annoying lol but not that bad. I used to really like those laughing boxes you could buy years ago. But what's the chances of seeing this cartoon and this being on yt the same day, yes your phones are listening.

[@elizabethdegroot89]

I like listening to people laugh. It cheers me up 😊