Laughter Is the Best Medicine: Mark Twain’s Short Story ‘Curing a Cold’

A doctor reassures the mother of a sick child in this photograph from a 1904 book, "The Doctor's Leisure Hour." Public Domain

With everyone getting sick at this time of year, it is crucial to keep a sense of humor. Rather than whining about the aches and pains, finding the humor in our human condition proves far more remedial.

Such is the attitude with which Mark Twain approaches illness in his short story “Curing a Cold.” He tells how he contracted a cold one day and the plethora of remedies with which he tried to cure it. Through his many attempted remedies (which definitely shouldn’t be imitated), he seeks to instill a sense of humor in sickness.

Mark Twain in Naples, Italy. Public Domain

Prefatory Remarks

Twain prefaces his story by admitting that a storyteller’s duty is to amuse readers. Nevertheless, he adds that perhaps it’s more important to provide instruction and lessons for the reader to learn from. In this particular story, he claims that he aims to provide such instruction: “If it prove the means of restoring to health one solitary sufferer among my race ... I shall be amply rewarded for my labor; my soul will be permeated with the sacred delight a Christian feels when he has done a good, unselfish deed.”

The humorous, ironic tone of this announced intent provides the lens through which the rest of the story can be viewed. Twain immediately follows his preface with a comical moral disclaimer: “Having led a pure and blameless life, I am justified in believing that no man who knows me will reject the suggestions I am about to make.”

Catching a Cold

With the prefatory remarks out of the way, Twain goes on to detail how he contracted a cold the day that the White House burned in Virginia City. Sadly, he got the cold while concocting a plan of how to put the fire out.

He soon started sneezing and a friend advised him to put his feet in hot water and sleep. He kindly followed this friend’s advice with no result. His next friend advised that he “feed a cold and starve a fever,” but, since Twain had both a cold and a fever, he decided to try both remedies.

After feeding and stuffing his cold at a restaurant, Twain headed back to the office. On the journey back, another friend advised that Twain take a quart of warm saltwater. Twain admits: “I hardly thought I had room for it, but I tried it anyhow. The result was surprising. I believed I had thrown up my immortal soul.”

Having warred with the saltwater, Twain continued his journey to his office, but encountered an old woman along the way. This old woman made Twain “a decoction composed of molasses, aquafortis, turpentine, and various other drugs.” Instead of curing him, Twain confessed that the decoction proved harmful. It awoke in him a spirit of immorality, which he was fortunately too weak to carry out at the time.

Twain tried many more remedies with much more humor, but few beneficial results.

In this 1915 photograph, a mother gives medicine to her sick child. Public Domain

Yet, through Twain’s attempts at curing his cold, he demonstrated the need for a sense of humor in enduring sickness. Moreover, he points out the humor of being human and, doing so, he brings a joyous perspective to life.

As Hugh Sidey says: “A sense of humor ... is needed armor. Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.” Thus, laughter proves the best medicine for ailments and should be upheld because it enables a healthy, wholesome grasp on life.

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