Patch Adams: Laughter is the best medicine

Laughter is contagious and it heals. No one knows this better than Hunter "Patch" Adams.

A heartwarming tale about fighting hard for a good cause, Patch Adams (Robin Williams) touches our senses and emotions in an uncanny, funny way. Uncanny because the protagonist in this movie is a patient who later becomes a doctor at a mental institute where he cures people’s illnesses by making them laugh (that’s the funny side).

In the serious world of medicine, however, no one is expected to crack a joke when the situation is a matter of life and death. But this isn’t a rule. And so Patch comes to work wearing squeaky over-sized shoes, puffy red nose and tons of gags and comic stories to boot. The patients welcome him but not the authorities of the institute who criticizes him for displaying "excessive happiness."

"If you want to be a clown, join the circus," a faculty advisor tells him.

His roommate Mitch (Philip Seymour Hoffman) also hates him for mocking the profession he so seriously and painstakingly is trying to practice. Patch is viewed as a radical without a cause, someone out to taint the image of doctors.

But who should be the better judge than the patients themselves whose lives were touched and healed by Patch’s humorous method of attending to their needs? With Patch, they find a cure to their sadness, anxiety and boredom, things not even a breakthrough pill can do. With Patch, they find a compassionate doctor-friend, whose pursuit is not only to restore their health but also their spirit.

So when Patch finds himself in a ditch, with the tragic death of his love interest Carin (Monica Potter) at the hands of a deranged patient and the trial that attempts to revoke his license to practice medicine, his patients stand beside him as tangible proof of the miracle that he continually performs.

Based on a true story, this movie can touch the different sides of our personality – the funny and the serious. So we become like Patch as we watch it, laughing at one instance and then crying the next. This display of contradicting emotion would probably make everyone think we’re crazy, but actually, it’s just our natural reaction as rational beings.

Why then should we be afraid to laugh, or to cry even, at any given instance in our lives? Especially if doing so would make us feel better or relieved?

In the movie, Patch teaches us the value of empathy, the kind that does not sow grief but happiness. How we can create tiny miracles by simply spreading joy to those who lack of it. Laughter, as many studies have shown and indeed, is a good medicine–not only for the body, but for the mind and soul.

The movie also notably shows that laughter is for everyone, even for the sick, the old and the desolate. It is a universal as language and affects everyone in the same way. Its beauty is that it’s contagious and it can last in our minds for a long time.

While there are plenty of things that make life sad (illnesses, wars, poverty, death, etc.), there are also countless reasons to be happy (seeing long-lost friends, Sunday outings with the family, a wisely cracked joke, etc.). Patch achieves happiness by making other people happy.

What about us? What makes us happy? Are we too busy thinking of our problems that we often forget to even smile? For a moment, let’s take time to think about the funny story we last heard or the hilarious incident we saw while on our way to work one day. Then laugh. Now how does it feel? Isn’t it refreshing? Now if only we can share our laughter with others, then we’ll have Patch Adams in our midst.