A funny thing happened on the way to the hospital

Being a successful stand-up comic, it seems, may not be as wonderful as it is cracked up to be. In fact, according to results from a landmark study published in the International Journal of Cardiology, the funnier and more successful you are as a stand-up comedian, the more likely you are to die prematurely.

"Indeed, the data confirmed an adverse relationship between comedic ability and longevity, with elite standup comedians more highly rated by the public more likely to die prematurely," said lead researcher Professor Simon Stewart, a world-leading cardiac researcher from the Mary MacKillop Institute of Health Research at Australian Catholic University.

"Within an international cohort of stand-up comedians spanning the last century and voted by the public as the funniest of their profession, we discovered that greater comedic ability was associated with a shorter lifespan, even after adjusting for life expectancy differences based on year of birth. Conversely, in parallel cohorts of the world's funniest comedy actors and the greatest dramatic actors, there was no evidence of premature mortality related to public-rated professional success or ability," he added.

Professor Stewart and fellow researchers conducted this retrospective cohort study to compare elite stand-up comedians—like Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais, Eddie Murphy, and Amy Schumer—with other comedic and dramatic screen and stage actors. In these elite stand-up comedians, they found a pattern of premature mortality, suggesting that higher comedic standing may be associated with younger age at death.

Researchers gathered subjects who appeared in the 2015 lists of “Funniest Stand-Up Comedians of All Time,” “Funniest People of All Time,” and “Greatest Actors and Actresses in Entertainment History.” Of these top 200 entertainers listed in the comedian, comedy actor, and dramatic actor categories by a popular online crowd-ranking website (http://www.ranker.com), researchers included 498 subjects:

• 200 stand-up comedians (13% female),
• 114 comedy actors (17.5% female), and
• 184 dramatic actors (29.3% female).

As a group, stand-up comedians were younger than comedy actors, with a median birth year of 1962 compared with 1947 (P < 0.001), and also younger than dramatic actors (1962 vs 1946; P < 0.001).

In all, 18.0% of stand-up comics had died, compared with 29% of comedy actors, and 30.9% of dramatic actors (P=0.011). In age of death, there was a significant gradient (P=0.011) showing that stand-up comedians died at a younger age compared with comedy actors and dramatic actors, at 67.1 years compared with 68.0 years and 70.7 years.

In addition, researchers found that stand-up comedians were more likely to die prematurely compared with dramatic actors (38.9% vs 19.6%; OR: 1.98; 95% CI: 1.01-3.87; P=0.043). Only in stand-up comedians was there an association between higher comedy ranking and shorter longevity, independently of birth year (HR: 0.938; 95% CI: 0.880-0.999, a 10-rank difference; P=0.045).

Professor Stewart noted that the differing nature of the work and the working environments screen actors and stand-up comedians are subjected to may be a contributing factor to these associations. For example, he noted, while screen actors usually adhere to a tight, regular filming schedule, stand-up comedians are typically subjected to late hours, irregular hours, and extensive travel.

"The associated difficulty in maintaining regular patterns of sleep, nutrition, and exercise may contribute to detrimental physiological effects and health outcomes, including increased inflammatory markers, higher blood pressure, reduced glucose tolerance, obesity, heart disease, and mortality," commented Professor Stewart.

"Overall, the results point to a need for awareness of health and well-being concerns in the entertainment industry, and in elite comedians in particular. It appears that for stand-up comedians, being at the very top may be no laughing matter," he concluded.