Get mad (in a good way) 11/silliness L


ondoners aren’t exactly famous for their friendly attitude and ready smiles. But hey: that’s all the more reason to support the Make a Stranger Smile campaign, say Chris Cape and Emma Patterson, two out-of-towners on a mission to


bring sunshine and laughter to the capital. Sound too good to be true? ‘We just wanted to


spread a little happiness and silliness, because we didn’t feel there was enough of it around,’ say Patterson, an Australian designer, and Cape, a South African musician. But mainly they did it to have fun. ‘And what’s more fun than making other people happy?’ Having launched their campaign on Facebook,


last autumn, they took to the streets armed with fake moustaches, silly outfi ts and some really bad jokes. As well as giving away giant ’taches, the ‘smile team’ handed out bunches of fl owers with instructions to pass them on to a stranger because ‘It might just make their day’; held up a sign off ering free hugs; played with strangers’ hair; told jokes; sang (‘that was painful – for everyone’, recalls Cape). They have dressed in loud sportswear, grinned maniacally and, on the suggestion of a punter, poked people (a technique that proved surprisingly successful). ‘I even tried to give away free kisses,’ says Cape, who’s optimistically hoping the campaign might also get him a girlfriend. Any takers? ‘Erm, not as many as I’d have liked.’ So how hard was it to get notoriously fed-


up Londoners to crack a smile? ‘Hard, but not as hard as I’d thought,’ says Cape. ‘I ended up feeling a lot more positive about London than


I had before.’ Patterson agrees: ‘I’ve realised it’s actually quite easy to penetrate Londoners’ serious exteriors.’ Unsurprisingly, besuited commuters were the toughest; young women and tourists the easiest. But the team also managed to get a policeman and Tube staff to lighten up. ‘As soon as someone sees someone else


doing it, then they feel more relaxed about getting involved too,’ says Cape. ‘I waited for ages holding my ‘Free Hugs’ sign before anyone would do it, but once one person had, a queue formed. And at one point I even managed to get a whole Tube carriage to wear moustaches.’ Not content with a few localised smiles, Cape


and Patterson have written to the Mayor’s offi ce to see if Boris is up for a laugh. ‘He’s a classic. He’s a legend,’ says Cape. ‘I’d love to challenge him to a game of basketball.’ Cape’s other cherished ambition is to get under the skin of workers at Canary Wharf – ‘where they’d hate me,’ he admits gleefully. ‘I’d like to turn a shopping trolley into a ship and have girls in naval outfi ts pushing me while I rap about what’s around me.’ Patterson is hoping to develop their campaign


with the help of experts on the psychology of smiling and other organisations and sponsors; and there are plans for another ‘day of action’ on Blue Monday (24 January), supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Most importantly, they want as many people as possible to get involved and post ideas on the MASS Facebook page for things they’d like to see happen. ‘Don’t worry,’ says Cape. ‘We’ll be the ones making fools of ourselves.’ makeastrangersmile.com


SmilingIS AWonderful Other people’s smiles make us feel w


bbc science presenter dr alice roberts anatomises the human smile ‘A genuine smile involves the whole of the face, with a creasing around the eyes; with a fake smile, your mouth moves, but your upper face


remains impassive. Looking at a genuine smile makes you feel happy yourself, switching on parts of the brain associated with positive emotions and triggering the release of endorphins, our natural painkillers. In contrast, looking at a fake smile leaves you cold. As humans we wear our


happiness on our faces because one of the hallmarks of our species is the ability to exchange ideas and produce complex culture, a process facilitated by the “social glue” of smiling and laughing. In the grip of negative emotions, we tend to narrow our attention to the immediate here and now. Positive emotions, however, help us to think and behave more fl exibly – something that’s useful for long-term survival. So smiling and laughing are not only pleasant, they also make us think more holistically, creatively and globally.’


PHOTOGRAPHY: JON ENOCH


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