Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.

This line is characteristic of Jack Handey’s deadpan, one- or two-sentence “Deep Thoughts,” a comedy form popularized on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. Handey’s pieces mimic the cadence of earnest folk wisdom or inspirational aphorisms, then pivot to a grimly literal or absurd consequence. The joke here riffs on the commonplace saying “laughter is the best medicine,” placing it in a family reminiscence that abruptly turns tragic with the mention of tuberculosis—an historically serious, often fatal disease—thereby heightening the incongruity between cheerful advice and harsh reality.

The humor depends on a collision between cliché and literalism. The father’s belief in laughter as “medicine” is treated as if it were an actual medical regimen, and the narrator’s understated conclusion—“which I guess is why…”—turns the moralizing proverb into an indictment of misplaced faith in easy remedies. The tuberculosis reference adds historical weight and morbidity, making the punchline darker: optimism and platitudes cannot substitute for real care. In miniature, the quote satirizes sentimental wisdom culture and exposes how comforting sayings can feel profound while being useless—or even harmful—when confronted with genuine suffering.