A study conducted by UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Rx Laughter and funded by a grant from the cable television channel Comedy Central suggests that comedy and humor can be beneficial to individuals coping with pain.

Participants in the study watched funny classic and contemporary films and television series before, during and after a standardized pain test. The group demonstrated significantly greater pain tolerance while viewing the comedy shows.

"We found that viewing funny videos increased the tolerance of pain for children, but did not change their ratings of the severity of pain," said Dr. Margaret Stuber, a researcher in the Jonsson Cancer Center and first author of the study.