THE ART OF KEEPING LAUGHTER ALIVE - ENGLISH AND SPANISH

I confess that I laugh less these days. Whenever something begins to amuse me, someone or something promptly takes away the will to laugh. Still, I find pleasure in exploring the many ways speakers of different languages try to convey that marvelous sensation. A simple “She laughed” is apparently not enough: the speaker insists on adding something—“her head off,” “herself silly,” “like a drain,” and so on.

In Spanish, risa comes with an astonishing array of intensifiers: Morirse (partirse, mondarse, troncharse, desternillarse, revolcarse, retorcerse, mearse, descojonarse, reventar) de (la) risa; reír a mandíbula batiente. And I have gathered the following citations to prove it:

“Se reían. Se partían de risa.” José Fernando Siale, El guardia colonial…, 2001. (Guinea Ecuatorial)
“… se meaban de la risa como en la montaña rusa.” Manuel Longares, Romanticismo, 2001. (España)
“Jorge… los monjes se desternillaban de la risa.” Jorge Bucay, El camino de la autodependencia, 2002. (Argentina)

English, not to be outdone, also multiplies its ways of laughing: laugh one’s head off, kill oneself laughing, laugh oneself silly, die laughing, laugh like a drain, split one’s sides (laughing), bust out laughing, have them rolling in the aisles.

¡Me descojono de risa pensando en la cara que van a poner mis amables lectores! And bear in mind that a laugh a day keeps the doctor away!