When “笑” fills a head
Why it is in the set
A set of 36 that leans on deadlines, worry and the dark needs somewhere pleasant to land. 笑 is that. It also happens to be the character people are most pleased to see fill their grid, which makes it one of the most shared results on the site.
What a head full of it looks like
Replaying something someone said. Laughing at the wrong moment in a meeting. The specific danger of remembering a joke during a silence. A head led by 笑 is a head carrying something funny around and taking it out periodically.
Words that use it
笑顔 (egao, a smiling face), 微笑 (bishou, a faint smile), 苦笑 (kushou, a wry laugh), 爆笑 (bakushou, an explosion of laughter), お笑い (owarai, comedy as a genre).
Kanji it turns up with
友 (friends) behind 笑 is the warmest combination the set produces. 笑 with 泣 (crying) behind it is the one the quips do most with.
Where “笑” comes from
Bamboo on top (竹), and below it a figure with its head tipped back. Bamboo bends in the wind; so does a person laughing.
That reading of the shape is the traditional one and not certain, which is true of a lot of old characters. What is certain is that the bamboo radical is there and that it has been the character for laughing for well over two thousand years.
In Japanese internet writing, a single 笑 at the end of a sentence works the way “lol” does. The letter w, short for warau, does the same job and is more common now.
A line you might get for “笑”
“Something from three days ago is still funny. It was not that funny.”
Count the “笑” in your own headOthers in “Feelings”
“笑” is filed under “Feelings”. These are the rest of that group.
The 36 kanji
This is entirely a joke and has nothing to do with any real person.