Hysteria is often disproved off when displayed in children (and some more excitable animals, such as hamsters) but I’ve always found it to be a most desirable state. So much so that chocolate cake, gin and sexual release come a poor second.

Hysteria – by that I mean wheezing, laughing, bending over double and generally emitting the sound of enthusiasm – is a highly prized skill and should not be overlooked in the work place or the bedroom. Who would you rather sit next to or lie with? Someone who never moves their face? Or someone who lights up with recognition, laughs like a drain and meets you half way in a shared moment of mirth and merriment.

Recognition leads to the act of laughter – lack of recognition leads to isolation, which leads to wars and on many occasions an untimely death...

And while my findings haven’t been entirely empirically proven – I do know that you can laugh yourself young as well as out of all difficulties …

If you’re having a serious, isolationist moment here is a shopping list of things that make me laugh:

Someone farting in yoga (I know... but it never fails. Well it didn’t on my Ibithan yoga retreat - let’s leave it there shall we? And also it wasn’t me, whatever anyone said)

Someone falling over and then pretending they haven’t.

Someone falling over, and then looking around to see if anyone noticed that they’d pretended they hadn’t.

The person who was crushed by a falling pig accidently released from an aircraft.

Someone who has the surname ‘Wardrobe’

And laughter goes to the heart of government. If one was at a cabinet meeting (with an equal number of men and women around the table – we can dream) and let’s say one cabinet minister got up to go to the ladies and God forbid their skirt was caught in their knickers – the person who acknowledged this would be the one to win the next argument. Laughter is honest. It’s trustworthy and shows a generosity of spirit. Repression is suspect.

Surely a photograph of someone roaring with laughter is more compelling than someone roaring in the act of orgasm, eating a brownie or falling over drunk.... If on the other hand you can find someone who can do all three at once – I’m interested.