Bored Panda spoke with Sophia Armen, one of the women who posted extremely viral tweets. In her post, she compared EU leaders sitting around a round table to hummus and got nearly half a million likes.

“I love hummus and it is always on my mind. I couldn’t help it,” Armen explained what inspired her to make the joke. “The image even had the parsley garnish! People around the world expressed they also saw hummus. And once they saw it, that they “couldn’t unsee it.” That is how I felt as well.”

“The tweet got a lot of love from users in the Middle East. I was happy that a tweet spread a little joy,” she said. “As a woman social media can be a scary place, especially when you are outspoken and community-committed. This tweet was a moment of joy that showed universal love of hummus. Just made me smile and laugh.”

The relationship between humor, stand-up comedy, and gender is seen as innately ‘sexist’ by some. Being a stand-up comedian was, until recently, seen as a profession ‘meant’ almost exclusively for men due to how much ‘aggression’ it requires. However, this has partly changed in recent years. Female comedians are becoming more and more prolific, even though not everyone accepts them. A large portion of female stand-up comedians use humor as a platform to declare their political beliefs and promote feminism.

Humor is known to have positive side-effects. According to one study, laughter helps reduce blood pressure. While another one shows that laughing helps reduce anxiety, as well as other negative emotions. In other words, if you’re laughing, you most likely won’t be crying anytime soon. 

What’s more, laughter can boost your immune system, improve blood circulation, calm down stress hormones, and even relieve pain! When you look at it this way, there’s barely anything that humor can’t help fix. Of course, it’s no substitute for exercise, a good diet, getting plenty of sleep, and doctor-approved medication or therapy if you need it, but laughter can give a big boost to your mood and your energy levels.