M: Do you laugh a lot?

R: I mean, how much is a lot? But probably, I mean, these days you just, you have to, just to manage the stresses of living.

M: Do you like making other people laugh?

R: Doesn't everyone? I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who likes making people miserable. It's fun when you can share a laugh with your friends or even just random people you've met.

M: How do you make people laugh?

R: The same ways as most people do, I suppose. I tell jokes or funny anecdotes from my day or my work life. Sometimes a well-timed meme or a one-liner is all it takes.

M: When was the last time you laughed with your friends?

R: Well, the last time we were together. I mean, we always do, though I can't remember what we were laughing about for the life of me. Probably we were just poking fun at each other.

M: Do you like films which make you laugh?

R: Um, well, it depends on the situation, really. I mean, if it's supposed to be a serious moment in the plot, then I wouldn't laugh at any... Or I wouldn't want to laugh at any bad acting or a poorly phrased line. But if it's a comedy, then of course, I'll enjoy it, and I'll show my enjoyment by laughing.

M: Right! Thank you very much, Rory! Dear listener, laughter. Okay? So people laugh. We make other people laugh, and the noun is laughter. So for example, Rory's laughter is funny.

R: Allegedly.

M: No, give us some laughter, which is funny. Come on.

R: No. This is it. It's like when you ask someone to tell a joke and they're like, well, I don't really want to, I have stage fright.

M: Oh, come on. Okay, okay. So then Maria's laughter is funny. So here's my laughter. Okay? No? Not funny?

R: You could probably just go back to literally any episode where we've told a joke, and then we can, then you can see it for real.

M: You can say that I love a lot, or I don't usually laugh, or sometimes I laugh. Or like these days I'm stressed out, or I have a lot of stress in my life, so laughter helps me. So I often laugh.

R: I really don't like these questions where they're like, do you do something a lot? Like, who decides how much is a lot? So I like that one. I like this question, "how much is a lot" just to show the examiner that you're critically aware.

M: Stupid. Like, are you stupid with your stupid questions? No, I think, like, do you laugh a lot? I mean, like, do you laugh every day? Cause some people are very, you know, happy, they ha-ha all the time, and some people don't laugh every day. And actually, laughing is good for your body. It's good for your well being, mental health. There is some research, dear listener, from British scientists, and they say that laughter is good for your mental health. So you should laugh every day. Like this.

R: Well, then that's not a lot, is it? That's laughing the normal amount.

M: Yeah. Okay.

R: Who decides these things? I demand to know.

M: We don't know. You laugh, and also, you can make other people laugh. So if I make Rory laugh, I tell a joke and Rory goes like... Like this.

R: I would not go like that, but okay.

M: Rory will start laughing, dear listener. You can say I enjoy making other people laugh. I like making other people laugh. What is to be hard-pressed to do something?

R: If you're hard-pressed to do something, it just means that it would be an action that's difficult to perform. I mean, if you ask someone, do they like laughing, then you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who says no to this question. It would be difficult to find someone who says no to this.

M: To be hard-pressed is an adjective, which means having a lot of difficulties doing something. Especially because there is not enough time or money.

R: Is it an adjective?

M: It is an adjective. Yeah. Hard-pressed.

R: Oh, really? Oh, cool. I thought it would be like... I thought it would be passive voice. Ooh...

M: Yeah, hard-pressed to do something. Could you give us another example?

R: Could you give me another question?

M: No.

R: Maria is hard-pressed to think of another question at the moment. There we go. There's my example.

M: Yeah. We make people laugh, and we don't make people miserable.

R: Well, usually. Some people, sociopaths or psychopaths, love making people miserable, but most normal people do not.

M: It's fun to share a laugh with your friends. Share a laugh? When you tell a joke and your friends laugh at the joke, and you share a laugh. You laugh together. What about the propositions, Rory? So I laugh at a joke?

R: Yes.

M: I laugh at myself.

R: Yes.

M: And if you laugh at other people, it's not good.

R: Well, I don't know. It depends. If the other people deserve it, then maybe it's okay. But you don't laugh at your friends, for example, because, then that's not being a good friend. That means the friend is the object of the joke and the laughter, and that's not a very nice thing.

M: Yeah, for example, like, ah, Rory, your hair is funny. Look at your hair. You know? I'm laughing at Rory, so this is not good. I never do this. Your hair is beautiful, Rory.

R: Yes, Maria, Maria never laughs at anything I do. Ever.

M: No, no.

R: There we go.

M: Oh... How do we make people laugh? We tell a joke, or we crack a joke. I usually crack jokes. I usually tell jokes. I usually tell funny anecdotes. Rory, what's the difference between jokes and anecdotes?

R: An anecdote's like a story, but a joke is a story deliberately with the purpose of making people laugh. And it's usually short, for example.

M: Yeah, when you say something like, oh, today, when I went shopping, I... So it's an anecdote. Like a story.

R: It could be funny, but it doesn't have to be.

M: Also, we use memes. We send each other memes, and we show, or say one-liners. What is a one-liner?

R: What is a one-liner? it's just like... It's just a single line that fits with the... What you're talking about to make things funny.

M: For example?

R: I can't think of one right now.

M: Rory, you have Google.

R: I know I do. But like, well, a one-liner, it could be a small joke or it could be a witty remark. But in order to make a witty remark, you have to be talking about something.

M: Okay. So... Funny one-liners. My wife told me to stop impersonating a flamingo. I had to put my foot down. I don't understand.

R: Oh, because flamingos always have one foot up. I understand it.

M: Oh...

R: Although there we had a one-line earlier. It's a shame we weren't recording, because Ian, Vanya's son. This is the son of our producer. Was saying, Rory, I'm looking for dad jokes on ChatGPT. I said, well, we don't need ChatGPT for this, because I'm looking at your dad right now.

M: Nice.

R: This is implying that our producer is a joke. He is not a joke, he's a very funny, serious man.

M: It's not a one-liner. One-liner is just one, one sentence.

R: Yes, but it can be a witty remark. That is a witty remark if you say, well, we don't need ChatGPT for this, because your dad's already here. So there you go.

M: Yeah, okay, okay.

R: It's not, it's not always about a joke. It can be about a remark as well.

M: Yeah, dear listener, so a one-liner could be a remark, something that you say that is funny, witty, smart, or it could be a joke which consists of one sentence. For example, Russian dolls are so full of themselves.

R: There we go. That's a fun one.

M: Yeah, Russian dolls, you know, like you put one doll into another doll, into another doll, and literally, they are full of themselves. Because you put one doll in another doll. And to be full of yourself, what does it mean?

R: It means to be like, massively overly self-confident.

M: Yeah. Funny, dear listener. Yeah. So you can see that I usually use one-liners. What do we say? Do we use? Say?

R: You can. Usually, people are good at one-liners. So in my case, sometimes I'm good at one-liners. I like to think I'm quite good at it all the time, but my friends perhaps have other opinions.

M: No, Rory, you're quite good at it. Yeah.

R: Really? When?

M: Very smart. All the time.

R: When? When was the last time?

M: No, the last time was, was with like dad.

R: But before that?

M: No, I don't remember. But it's like all the time. I can't recall your one-liners, but it's all the time.

R: It happens so often. I just...

M: It's just, it's natural. It's just you're kind of like a factory of one-liners, bam, bam, bam, bam. And memes. Rory sends me memes. Also, like you can say, like I send my friends reels. Reels are quite funny. Reels, memes.

R: And they are usually well-timed. So if something is well-timed, then it makes people laugh.

M: Yeah. If something is well-timed, it's the right time to send this particular reel or meme. I was laughing with my friends yesterday. You can use the Past Continuous. So the last time we went out, we were laughing our head off, or we were laughing our heads off.

R: Laughing our heads off.

M: So laugh my head off means to laugh a lot. To laugh your head off. Laugh loudly. The last time I met with my friends, I laughed my head off. You can say I can't remember what we were laughing about. So laugh about something. We were laughing about life. We were laughing about some jokes. Poke fun at each other.

R: Well, that's just to tease people or to mock them lightly for something or about something.

M: Poke fun at someone means to make someone seem stupid by making jokes about them or laughing unkindly. But you know you can use it about your friends, when you kind of, you joke around, but it's friendly, it's nice, it's for fun. So you... It's not evil, dear listener. It can be. Right? But it can also be evil. At work, my boss pokes fun at me.

R: That's like they're making fun of you. That's not a nice thing.

M: Yeah, make fun of somebody, it's not nice. But again, like, Rory, like, funny hair, hey, hey, like, Maria. Like, what? You're too beautiful today.

R: I like that. That's actually really a compliment, isn't it? To be honest, that's not a joke.

M: Like Maria, how many shoes, how many shoes do you have? Hahaha. Like, poke fun.

R: But it's important to point out that if you're poking fun at people then you are not, you know, like bullying them or horribly abusing them, you're just, it's light fun. It's not... It's something that friends do to each other. Do not poke fun at your examiner, for the love of God.

M: No no, no. Films which make you laugh are called comedies, usually, right? So people watch comedies to laugh, to have this, you know...

R: Well, usually... There's a very famous film called "The Room", which is a drama, but it's the worst film of all time, just because it's so badly written. People watch it to laugh and, well, poke fun at it.

M: And we can say that we watch some light films?

R: Yes.

M: When the plot is not complicated. So the plot is the story of the film. Or maybe you watch films with bad acting, with like, when actors act really badly, with horrible plot just to have a laugh. Rory, do we have any synonyms for like to laugh? Like I laugh a lot. I want to make other people laugh. Any synonyms? Or we stick to like laugh?

R: I'm trying to think of any that don't have the word laugh in it, but I'm just thinking of laughing my head off right now. Oh, you can lose it, which means you lose control of yourself because you're laughing so much.

M: For example?

R: Well, my best friend and I often lose it when we hear something rude in a film or a line that could be misconstrued. So there's that.

M: Can I roar with laughter?

R: You can but that's also got the word laugh in it. I'm trying to think of alternatives for laughing. Giggling.

M: Giggle. Yeah. If you giggle, you go like... You know? Like little girls giggle.

R: I... Do you know? I'm so glad you said that. Because I was making fun of someone for that recently, because there were two people in my house, they're friends, and they were talking to each other privately, and all I could hear was this giggling. So I turned around and said you're giggling like a pair of Japanese school girls. Which is, well, which is a line from a different TV series that we used to watch together.

M: Yeah. And dear listener, giggle is a C2 word. Proficiency level.

R: Is it?

M: Yeah. C2. Wow. Giggle. So to laugh repeatedly in a quiet but uncontrolled way, often at something silly or rude, or when you're nervous. So if you're nervous, you go... Or if you laugh at something silly. Like young girls laugh at the cinema in the back row, for example. And you say, like, stop giggling. Stop that giggling. Or at school, so giggle. What else, Rory? That's all.

R: I... No, there must be...

M: Yeah, you can say, like, the last time I met my friends, we were roaring with laughter. Not Rory.

R: But that's also like with the word laughter. I'm trying to think of a synonym.

M: It's a collocation.

R: I know. But I want a word without the word laugh in it. But I can't think of any. Tittering. There we go.

M: No, but it's something different.

R: Tittering?

M: Tittering. Yeah. Titter is mainly UK, and it means to laugh nervously.

R: There we go. Yes, but it's still not got the word laugh in it.

M: Yeah, but it has like a different meaning. Like titter, when you are nervous, you laugh and you laugh at something that you feel you should not be laughing at.

R: I mean, to be honest, this is something I do quite a lot.

M: For example, students were teetering at their teacher. Yeah?

R: Probably, yeah. Or you could talk about tittering away in the background. Tittering away. Collocation.

M: Yeah. So dear listener, it's laugh, okay? But if you want to have some different meanings, like giggle, tittering, also roaring with laughter. Like laughing your head off, like you laugh a lot. So yeah. Sweet. Shall we have a round of laughter to just amuse our listener? Just, you know, uncontrollable laughter.

R: Uncontrollable laughter. Like we'll laugh for one second and Vanya can put it on a loop.

M: Yeah, yeah, for example, like the most stupid laughter, you know? Because there are videos with the funniest laughter. And you watch the videos and you just start laughing your head off.

R: I like the ones where you... Where silly things happen and you have to try not to laugh. Or... Oh, do you ever watch videos with cats and dogs doing really stupid things?

M: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I love them.

R: I've discovered this recently. I love those videos.

M: I love them. Cats are just insane. So dear listener, you can go to YouTube and just put funny laughter, and watch a couple of people and try not to laugh, because... And there's one guy and he goes like... And this is his natural laughter. Or some people make very strange noises. They laugh. And they kind of, they like... Oh, like this. Rory, what's your stupid laughter? Come on. I've done my work here.

R: I can only do it when I find something really funny. Sometimes I guffaw with laughter, which is like a loud, obnoxious laugh.

M: Is my face funny now, Rory?

R: On that note, dear listener, thank you for joining us! See you next time!

M: Ooh, yeah, you can say, I make faces to make other people laugh. When, you know, like you create a crazy face and everybody laughs?

R: But you forget your face has subtitles.

M: Ah, thank you very much for listening! Goodbye! Bye!

R: Bye!

Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff!

Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi
Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi