Children's Hospital Boston's Chief of Radiology George Taylor, MD, followed the Children's Clown Care team with a camera to chronicle their amazing work. He quickly found that this group of professional entertainers from the Big Apple Circus Clown Care hospital clowning program prove laughter is a big part of the best medicine.

Dressed as doctors and nurses and sporting names like Dr. Gon Golfin, the eight clowns of Children's Big Apple Circus Clown Care hospital clowning program travel in pairs to visit all the hospital's patients over the course of a week. Seeing children of all ages means moving quickly from cooing with a baby in one room to cracking Saturday Night Live jokes with a teen next door. It's a difficult job, one "Dr. Gonzo," aka Robb Preskins, says is "like performing the first five minutes of a comedy routine all day long."

The clowns' hard work often pays off. Like the time they started a hallway parade and coaxed a boy out of bed who would heal faster if he started walking again; or the time patient Jessica Brown (left) wheeled excitedly over to Dr. Mensch so they could sing "Feliz Navidad" together—despite the trach tube that restricts her ability to talk.

From performing emergency chocolate milk transfusions to conducting kitty cat scans, these comics do their best to lighten any child's load.