The mystery of the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic: when laughter becomes dangerous

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[georgiamarie_]

this video is brought to you by that single hair that is stuck to my face that I somehow didn't notice whilst editing x

[littlefishiesinthese]

As a psych student, cases of mass psychogenic illness such as this one are so morbidly fascinating to me, it’s amazing in a kinda scary way just what the mind is capable of! Thank you as always for the fabulous upload Georgia 💜

[SurferJoe]

There might be little formal understanding of the way we experience emotions in groups. Armies experience sudden group panic in battle and throw down their arms and collapse into flight. Religious ecstasy seizes whole congregations. Anger and violence consume an entire mob of vengeance-seekers. Ball games and music produce rioting. These are brief and momentary instances of shared emotional extremes. Cults, extremists, terrorists, and high-control groups can be more long-term examples of shared mental illnesses. But mental illness isn't always chronic, and I think sometimes it can be as contagious as a sneeze.

[RealElongatedMuskrat]

a bit randomly, I have a friend who's family is from the first area where it started. She grew up in Uganda, but her older relatives told her about this. She feels it was likely an MPI, however she pointed out something that I found was interesting - she said in that area, and in the part of Uganda in which she grew up, belief in or fear of witchcraft is still very prevalent amongst certain communities there. Bad spirits causing people to behave in strange ways is something that not all, but plenty of people would believe to be possible. An underlying belief in bad spirits and spells jumping from person to person might have contributed to the MPI being sustained.

[trekker]

Have you done one on the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine?

[Luke-fuco]

Just because it actually ended up harming people doesn't rule out the theory that it was their bodies trying to make them better in some way, many terrible things come from our bodies trying to do something good, PTSD is the bodies way of preparing for a similar traumatic event or just trying to process the event, but just causes more harm, same to a lesser extent with anxiety, i definitely wouldn't rule it out as a possibility.

Also those claiming it would be 'misogynistic' to blame it on hysteria are actually just perpetuating the lie that mental health issues arent actually health issues🤷‍♂️ if something is affecting someone's health negatively, its still a health issue, whether or not it's 'just in their head'

[rebeccaxo]

Without sounding super disrespect this is very interesting. I've never heard of this before! Thanks for sharing this with us Georgia ❤️

[cuttlefisch]

Possible similarities to the uncontrollable "holy laughter" in the Charismatic Christian movement, such as in the "Toronto Blessing"??

[ahn]

I loved your uncontrollable dancing video. I’ve rewatched that many times. What timeless, well written content you make. Your medical and psychological mystery videos are my favourite. Maybe a medical playlist for us to peruse would be good?

[grapeshot]

In 18th century France you had a convent of nuns one of them started meowing like a cat one day and pretty soon the whole Convent of nuns were meowing like a cat. I guess it only stopped when the bishops threatened to beat the nuns if they did not stop meowing like cats.

[aoifeandginny]

If it is a bacteria or a parasite it could be from the beauty products they had available to them at the time which some might've been from the environment.

[noodlesauce]

Thank you for posting. I just moved across the country and am having a super hard time adjusting to my new place. Your videos give me a sense of comfort and routine💜💜

[neogenki]

Do you think nitrous oxide could actually be the culprit? If you look up nitrous oxide( aka laughing gas) it can be found in many environmental sources. Idk seems a much more likely cause than "everyone just randomly went bonkers because they're poor". The country seems to be a costal one and the gas can also be produced by the ocean or even be in the soil..

[uuykieto]

I'm learning english, so I don't understand everything you say, but I rlly appreciate your videos, I learn a lot with them, your content is excellent! 💖

[jupitergonewild]

I love learning new things about history Georgia I love the content you post these videos are amazing!

[maxkfuller]

Whoa this is such a wierd case! It feels so scary to think that hearing & seeing a neighbour/pedestrian on the street could lead to you getting affected or infected

[Oliviag]

I would think almost everyone has been affected by contagious laughter. While not often in my adulthood, even I just a few weeks ago actually had a laughter fit with someone else that started over something small and silly! It was definitely uncontrollable, and painful for sure. I’m not sure why it happens, but it is clearly a real thing that humans somehow get caught in sometimes! How it became so widespread and for so long is extremely interesting though, quite a mystery. I enjoyed this video!

[whitneyangelie]

How strange. You would think something was going haywire with their nervous system (laughing, crying, running, grimacing)…It could be a mental health problem that was then mirrored to other students (which is NOT to say it wasn’t real, mental health issues can manifest in the physical all the time I mean look at the havoc stress can wreak on our bodies). But it could also be something environmental, chemical etc. I find things like this fascinating because as far as we’ve come medically in understanding the human condition, there’s still so much that’s a mystery.

[sophie_may.d]

massively recommend reading Sleeping Beauties (hate the name but .. haha) which has a load of very similar examples of this type of 'illness' from communities all over the modern world, and discusses tough feelings around the 'it's all in your head' mentality

[ChloeXxX]

This case has always fascinated me. It's just so strange