About the Author: Richard Lazar
Dr. Richard G. Lazar, aka Spike or Doc, is a distinguished Organizational Psychologist who has doubled and dabbled as a Behavioral Economist and as a Humorologist. He holds three degrees, including a PhD from New York University, and has worldwide experience as both peacemaker and profit-maker for many companies and individuals. Throughout his 30-year career he always embedded jokes, stories and humor in his corporate work and his long-standing published columns, and now found in his Fountain of Humor™ ebooks and audiobooks. His secret formula for laughter is described by his Joke Jury process of assuring “surprise” endings.
His blog (LazarAchievementPsychology.com) focuses on laughter and the healing benefits of laughter. Laughing is alongside Living, Loving, Learning and Leaving as a vital achievement in our lives . . . despite Detractors.
The Fountain of Humor™ is about the need for a surge of laughter every day in almost every way. Doc focuses strictly on laughter and not anything else but laughter. He did a good deal of intensive thinking and research for three years and concluded that laughter is a fountain of wellbeing for all of us whatever your age.
Just two quotes guide him — one was from his dear friend, Victor Borge:
“He who laughs, lasts.” —Mark Twain
“Laughter is the shortest distance between people.” —Victor Borge
Doc notes, “We adults and seniors seem to lose our willingness or ability to laugh as time goes by . . . unless we employ real effort. There are different reasons for each of us for suppressing our laughter. Ever hear, ‘Don’t laugh too loud,’ ‘Don’t embarrass me in public with that cackle,’ ‘This is a serious matter, nothing to laugh about,’ or ‘You just have to control yourself or leave this room.’ We all have been imprinted with other expressions or rules of conduct from Detractors. These dampen our willingness to laugh a lot and out loud.”
He adds, “Evidence leads me to believe that ‘funny’ stuff, whether real, forced or faked, and if it results in out loud laughter, is good for our mental and physical health. So reverse course on any past pressure from life’s Detractors. Whether from outside or inside ourselves. The hardest part for most people is to believe me that it is the sounds of joy that are important to express from you and me or they get “stopped-up” and frustrated, suppressed and end up not helping us be mentally and physically healthy. So yes, “cackles” are great! So are tears of joy and sobbing from jokes. Don’t be your own Detractor. Be your own healer.” — Richard (Doc) Lazar, PhD
It is a collection of jokes and stories. These jokes can be read and listened to or read and/or played to people who live, work or love others. The material is helpful to mind and body. It is funny, tasteful and likely to make most people laugh out loud.
It’s all about feeling good, feeling much better, reducing sad feelings, healing mind and body. All anyone needs to do is to laugh loud and long to feel good and better. Yes, it works. It’s not a cure-all for aging and not a Fountain of Youth . . . simply a Fountain of Humor™ for all. It is a supply of funny jokes and stories that really helps, for a while, to reduce the depression about aging, the loss of loved ones, chronic illness, loss of sight, sound and mobility.
Our jokes and stories are provided through our unique process of selection, customization and cleansing by our “Joke-Jury.” This combined publication of text and audio has been designed so that:
A healthy person can see and hear the jokes and laugh.
A blind or partially blind person can hear the jokes and laugh.
A deaf or partially deaf person can see the jokes and laugh.
Even the dying find something to laugh about for a moment in time and will ask for more jokes.
My father-in-law, terminally ill with cancer, called often in his last year asking my wife and me to read a joke or two to him. Hearing him laugh from miles away also opened the door to comforting conversation and made it easier for all of us. This is mighty important for all of us.
An 85-year-old, losing her mental capacities, repeatedly asked for our jokes to be read to her. It comforted her right up to her passing.
A professional woman purchased the set for “signing” to groups of deaf people. She works with them as the audio version plays the jokes for her.
How Best to Use Fountain of Humor in Groups:
Instructions are provided on how to read them to diverse audiences in institutional settings or families or to their friends. We believe that the elderly, infirmed, families or just two people enjoy the togetherness and communal feeling that laughter brings. People love having jokes read to them. That “legitimizes” laughing out loud. Everyone wants to laugh, whether they are kids age 1 or 100.
