His mother would send him to the store for bananas (for that is what giggle monsters eat) and if they asked him whether he wanted one bunch or two he would laugh and laugh. He would laugh at people walking by, at a scrawny tree and probably would have laughed even at you or me. Day or night, sunshine or rain, the Giggle Monster kept giggling no matter what.

Then one day it happened. The giggle monster stopped giggling.

All of a sudden nothing seemed funny any more. Oh, he tried to laugh at a little dog that crossed the street but nothing happened. He saw the mailman wave at him as he drove by in his little truck, but still no laugh, giggle or even a chuckle. The Giggle Monster had giggled so much that all of his giggles were gone.

Suddenly, the Giggle Monster began to get worried. What would it take for him to giggle again?

One of his friends was very concerned about his once giggly but now sort of sad friend. He suggested that he try something. Maybe the giggle monster could try just laughing at things that were actually funny instead of just laughing at anything and everything all the time including some things that were definitely not funny like doorknobs, socks, and when other people said “hello”.

The Giggle Monster thought about this long and hard and finally decided he would try it. No more laughing at things that weren’t funny, only at things that were actually funny. “Whew, that sure sounds hard,” said the Giggle Monster “but I’ll give it a try”.

So for a whole day the Giggle Monster tried really, really hard to only laugh and giggle at things that were really funny. The only problem was, nothing funny happened at all. The bus driver picked him up for school. That wasn’t funny. Then he went to class and even took a test that he had forgotten to study for. That definitely wasn’t funny at all. He played with the other kids at recess and had lots of fun, but nothing really funny happened. Nothing that he should have chuckled or giggled at happened at all.

As he rode the school bus back home the Giggle Monster began to get worried. “If I never laugh again then not only will I be sad, they might not even call me ‘Giggle Monster’ ever again.” Just the thought made him more depressed by the minute. His friends tried to cheer him up but nothing really funny had happened and it really needed to happen soon or the Giggle Monster might never giggle again. And that would be a very sad thing indeed.

At that very moment, one of his friends sneezed really hard and then fell out of his seat onto the floor.

“Whoa” his friend said with a smile. He then began rubbing his bottom “that kind of hurt”.

The Giggle Monster made a small little noise. Then he made a couple other small squeaks and even a guffaw. The Giggle Monster was starting to giggle! He was starting to laugh! All of a sudden he smiled at his friend and began to laugh and laugh. Watching his friend sneeze so hard that he had fallen out of his seat onto the floor HAD BEEN FUNNY. All of the Giggle Monster’s friends started laughing and then everyone else on the bus started to laugh too. It was the best laugh any of them had ever had.

The Giggle Monster laughed until his sides hurt and tears rolled down his cheeks. He had never laughed so hard in his life and he had finally found the cure for his giggle problem. His friend had been right only laughing at what was really funny was the best way to laugh at all.