Laughs come in all shapes and sizes, loud and quiet, polite and extravagant and even the most embarrassing belly laughs can’t help but create more laughter around them! But what really makes us laugh?

When comedians touch on certain issues in a unique way, it makes us smile inside. Quite often, comedians discuss things in society in a more intimate, human centric way – a way that politicians and officials have made impossible by jargon infested language and hidden agendas. With a live comedian, the agenda is simple: for the audience to see the funny side of life.

Some issues that comedians touch upon include relationships, personal anecdotes, injustices, silly behavior and strange and funny experiences that we can all relate to. Comedians like Lee Evans, are more kinesthetic, illustrating their jokes with funny body movements or impressions. Others may be more verbose, using wordplay, double entendres or puns like comedian George Carlin was famous for. A special few stick to one-liners and perfect them until they can get the most laughs from the fewest words, like Mitch Hedberg. Some perform through music like The Flight of the Conchords, or Demetri Martin who uses presentations and amusing drawings. All of these are important forms of expression that find a way to make us chuckle.

For a joke to be funny, it must rely upon some prior knowledge, a cultural reference point or anchor. The punch line of the joke must be unexpected and delivered with great care. Comedy performers tirelessly rehearse their acts to perfect the timing of their jokes to extract the most laughter. Even though many rehearse, there are still a few who are just naturally funny and can spawn jokes from a seemingly limitless bag of humor.

Comedy is an art that relies upon getting a feel for the audience and many comedians, including Dave Chappelle, started their careers by being booed off stage at comedy clubs couple of times first. A good performer has the audience on the edge of their seat, hanging on every word, engaged and alert at the next laugh, and isnt afraid of testing the waters.

Comedians aren’t necessarily born (although many argue that Eddie Murphy was!) – most are created through hard work. Some are passionate about comedy through their personal struggles and this comes out in the performance, as Richard Pryor famously illustrated by making a comedy routine from his heart attack.

There’s a fantastic place that you can study and watch these famous comedians mentioned alongside comedians from all over the world. Its called Live Comedy Videos and its just started.

The creators of the site found that watching stand up comedy on sites like YouTube and Google Videos was difficult and not intuitive, so they created this site as a resource for anyone interested in the art of stand up comedy. You can select comedians by country and watch many of the videos in HD. The creators say that they are listing over 700 comedians and expect to have over 5000 videos online to stream, watch and browse by the time the site is complete. But you can get a sneak peek right now at http://www.livecomedyvideos.com.

The only way to learn about what makes a good laugh, is to do it yourself!

So visit Live Comedy Videos and find out what makes you laugh right now.