The Death of Laughter

No one had even know until it was on the late-night show. Then everyone was shocked, and tried to figure out where they had been at the precise moment of his death. They had tried to revive him, multiple times, but he was gone. “Why?” some asked. But why is hard to figure out, so many times we have to settle for how.

Only hours after the headline, the smile was interviewed about the death of one of her offspring. But the smile didn’t have her usual brilliance, in fact she was nearly impossible to find. “I don’t know how this could have happened,” she gushed. “He was always the happiest, everyone loved him.”

Then giggle came out and said she had an affair with him, and everyone was scandalized until someone pointed out that the two usually were together or one came right before the other. So the giggle got her five minutes of fame before she was regarded as too flirty.

Some whispered that people had turned to the smirk or the snort instead and relied so heavily on them. “He probably felt completely useless,” they all agreed. “Nobody needed him anymore. Up and died of loneliness, he did.”

Then others said he hadn’t really died, just went into hiding to save face. “He followed so many embarrassing things, after all.” Many would nod. Then others came up with wilder theories – that he had gotten surgery and wasn’t himself anymore, or he had evolved.

“Oh, he’ll come back someday, when times are better,” somebody announced. “Things are just hard right now. He’ll be back, you’ll see.”