This question may look deceptively rhetorical, but it begs a starkly literal answer.
Is laughter the best medicine?
No, it is not. If it were, those diagnosed with atrial fibrillation would be prescribed a Seinfeld box set instead of a blood-thinner and beta-blockers.
But imagine for a moment that laughter is a uniquely effective drug. In that event, anyone exposed to John Cleese these past several decades has been in the placebo group.
Mr Cleese's bitter resentments and ravening sense of entitlement denied have transformed