What if the best thing you could do for your mental health tonight was laugh until your stomach hurts? Sounds too good to be true — but laughter therapy is a real, research-backed practice, and it turns out games are one of the best ways to get there.
Here's what laughter therapy actually is, why it works, and how a card game can be a surprisingly powerful tool for processing the stuff we usually avoid.
What Is Laughter Therapy?
Laughter therapy (sometimes called humor therapy) uses laughter and humor as tools to reduce stress, ease anxiety, and help people process difficult emotions. It's used in clinical settings, group therapy, and increasingly — in everyday life — as a way to create emotional release without the weight of traditional talk therapy.
The science backs it up: laughter lowers cortisol (your stress hormone), releases endorphins, and creates a sense of connection with the people around you. It literally changes your body chemistry.
How Games Fit Into Laughter Therapy
Games create a safe container for humor. When you're playing a game, there's permission to be silly, to say things you might not say otherwise, and to laugh at situations — including your own — without it feeling too heavy. That's exactly the environment where laughter therapy thrives.
The best laughter therapy games share a few traits:
- They prompt honest, sometimes uncomfortable responses — but in a playful way
- They create shared moments of recognition (“omg, same” energy)
- They let people laugh with each other, not at each other
- They lower defenses without forcing vulnerability
Let That Sh*t Go: A Game Built for This
Let That Sh*t Go was designed around a simple but powerful idea: sometimes the funniest thing you can do is acknowledge the ridiculous, frustrating, or painful stuff you've been carrying around — and laugh about it together.
The game prompts players to surface triggers, pet peeves, past experiences, and emotional baggage — not to dwell on them, but to name them, share them, and let the group laugh through them together. It's not therapy in the clinical sense, but it creates the same kind of release: the moment you say the thing out loud and everyone laughs, it loses a little of its power over you.
That's laughter therapy in action.
Other Laughter Therapy Activities Worth Trying
- Laughter yoga — Yes, it's a real thing. Group sessions that combine breathing exercises with intentional laughter. Surprisingly effective.
- Improv comedy classes — Great for building spontaneity and learning to find humor in unexpected places.
- Funny movie nights with intention — Watch something that makes you genuinely laugh, then talk about what resonated.
- Journaling with humor — Write about something stressful from a comedic angle. It reframes the narrative.
Who Benefits Most from Laughter Therapy Games?
Honestly? Almost everyone. But it's especially powerful for:
- People who tend to take themselves (or life) too seriously
- Groups navigating shared stress — work teams, families, friend groups going through change
- Anyone who needs permission to not be okay — and laugh about it anyway
- People in recovery or processing past experiences who want a lighter entry point to emotional work
Ready to Let It Go?
If you're looking for a laughter therapy game that doesn't feel like therapy, Let That Sh*t Go is a great place to start. It's funny, it's real, and it has a way of making the hard stuff feel a little lighter — one card at a time.