Something to Laugh About – The Weird Side of the Internet

Something to Laugh About – The Weird Side of the Internet – by Liam Sweeny.

There are strange diseases out there. I know. House is one of the three shows I have on the television in the background when I’m doomscrolling Facebook. And if House is to be believed, everyone has sarcoidosis, amyloidosis, and “it’s never lupus.” But there actually are weird diseases, and one of them, Kuru, has some grisly origins, and maybe a grisly affect.

You don’t get Kuru from eating too many gas station chili dogs. In fact, you will most likely never see it, as it’s basically been eradicated from its heyday in 50s to 60s Papua New Guinea. At its prime, it was killing 200 people a year out of a tribe of 11,000.

Kuru is the “laughing disease.” It takes years to incubate, but when it pops up, you get a host of symptoms, one of which is laughing uncontrollably. Also crying uncontrollably, and to throw a ‘now you know” in here, the symptom is called pseudo-bulbar affect (thanks, House!) But that is just one notable symptom, and this disease kills all – 100% mortality rate.

How did these people get it? When their loved ones passed on, they passed the brains – likely in a casserole dish, or more likely with rice on a banana leaf or something. Maybe they served it with fish, who knows. Yes, it’s a cannibalism disease, so you should be aware that this is probably how you’re going to go if you manage to survive the world’s descent into barbarism. That or high blood pressure, depending on your stress levels.

So the moral of this story is don’t f**king eat people. Or maybe just avoid the brains. Maybe drinking from the skulls of your enemies is enough, but for the sake of Joe wash the things out. And House is on Hulu, by the way, in case you’re interested.

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