Laughlend

Laughlend (n.) is the laugh you lend to a conversation when you have missed the punchline. The restaurant is loud. Someone at the far end of the table says something, and everybody around them bursts out laughing. You caught the words so, and the dog, and possibly umbrella. There is no time to ask. So you laugh too, warmly and convincingly, and hope very much that the subject changes before anybody turns to you for your view on the umbrella.

A laughlend is an act of kindness disguised as a small lie. It keeps the conversation flowing. It tells the joke-teller that their effort was appreciated. It spares everyone the awkward business of repeating a story that was only funny the first time. For a few seconds, you are fully part of the group, sharing a moment that you did not, strictly speaking, attend.

The danger comes afterwards. Laughlends are taken out on credit, and credit can be called in. The most common risk is the follow-up question: wait, what did you think happened to the umbrella? Another is the delayed callback, in which the joke is referred to again twenty minutes later, and you must laugh a second time, even more knowingly, at a thing you still do not understand.

There are graded levels. The light laughlend is a short chuckle and a nod, easily withdrawn. The medium involves a proper laugh and eye contact with the teller. The full laughlend adds a repeat of a word you heard, delivered with delight, as in: the dog! This is very convincing and extremely risky, particularly if the dog was not the funny part.

The laughlend has an unexpected cousin: the laugh of the person who told the joke. Many of us laugh at our own stories before we have even finished telling them, which prompts other people to join in before they know why. Whole tables can be carried along on laughter that nobody could explain if asked. Most evenings go on perfectly happily anyway.

The real thing behind the word is that laughter is mostly social. Researchers who have eavesdropped on everyday conversations have found that much of the laughter people produce does not follow jokes at all, but ordinary remarks such as see you later or I know. People are also far more likely to laugh when they are with others than when they are alone, even while watching exactly the same thing.

That suggests laughter works less like a verdict on how funny something is and more like a signal between people: I am with you, I am enjoying this, we are fine. Laughter is also contagious, which is why television comedies once added recorded audiences and why laughing along can feel almost automatic. So a laughlend is not really a fraud. You may not have heard the joke about the umbrella, but you heard the most important part, which is that your friends were having a good time.