The Philosopher Chrysippus Died Laughing From His Own Joke
The Greek philosopher Chrysippus of Soli was given the title of the Second Founder of Stoicism. He excelled in logic, the theory of knowledge, ethics, and physics. And he created a new system of propositional logic to better understand the universe. Sorry to say, though, philosophy is not that funny. But what is funny is the way he died. As the story goes, one day he saw a donkey eating the figs. Chrysippus said, “Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs.” He laughed so hard at his own joke that he died at 73 years old. Severe fits of laughter have been known to sometimes trigger cardiac arrest, asphyxiation or a loss of consciousness. Believe it or not, this is not the only time that someone has died of laughter in history. In fact, there is an entire Wikipedia page on the subject.