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Subscribe to RSSWe have them during job interviews, dressing downs and in the case of a Swiss politician, during televised speeches about cured meats. Giggle fits have hit us all.
In case you missed it, the Swiss finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz has become an Internet hit after laughing uncontrollably while making a speech to parliament about spiced meat imports. Over 1 million people have watched him crack up over “Bündnerfleisch” on YouTube.
Sure, air-dried meats are just plain funny. But funerals – not so much.
Still, Stephanie Auteri, a 30-year-old writer from Clifton, N.J., says she burst out laughing at the wake for her friend’s father. Over a decade later, she still cringes at the memory.
“I went with another friend of mine and I was twisted up inside with anxiety. As I approached the front of the room and my grieving friend, the anxiety burbled up inside of me, forcing its way out as laughter,” she says.
According to Robert Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation,” cracking up – even at a funeral or formal state event – isn’t all that unusual.
“Laughter is not under much conscience control,” he says. “We don’t decide to laugh, it just happens. It’s like crying in that respect. Most laughter is for no reason; it’s not a response to a joke. It’s a response to other people.”
Spontaneous laughter is very much a social function, he says, something that usually doesn’t happen if we’re alone. Laughter also breeds more laughter (poor Hans-Rudolf tries to stop tittering a number of different times but can’t) and is contagious, causing other people to laugh, which in turn stimulates additional laughter from the first person.
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“Once it’s in gear, it’s hard to disengage,” he says. “And once a group starts doing it, it reinforces itself.”
Provine, who’s studied laughter for 20 years, says the giggle effect happens to everyone – from newscasters delivering the news to Shakespearean actors in the middle of a performance. The giggle bug has also bitten Drew Carey, who started tittering after encountering a contestant named Dr. Bummer on “The Price Is Right,” and the usually steadfast BBC Radio announcer Charlotte Green, who dissolved into uncontrollable laughter while reading an on-air obituary for Abby Mann, the screenwriter who penned “Judgment at Nuremberg.”
Uncontrollable laughter isn’t always funny, of course. An ill-timed outburst can sometimes be a symptom of multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, or a rare form of an epileptic episode known as a galastic seizure.
Usually, though, it’s just something spontaneous that happens when we’re around other people, says Provine, who says the best way to stop a laughing fit is to go off by yourself.
As for what exactly was cracking up the Swiss finance minister, that remains a mystery. Although Provine has a theory: “Maybe he knows something about Swiss meats that we don’t know.”
Have you come down with an epic case of the giggles at some inappropriate moment? Do tell!
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I had a very uncomfortable encounter at work after being literally cornered by a consultant. I felt the need to report this to my boss but each time I tried to recount the episode, my anxiety would get the best of me and I would start laughing. Nothing funny about it and I was mortified by my own laughter. It's the only time any such thing has happened to me but I understand it a little better after this article. Apparently I'm not alone.
Once, I was sitting in church with my family, and burst out laughing. We were in the middle of a solemn time of prayer, and the guy I like was sitting next to me.
I was on my second date with my husband and it was the first time we kissed. We kissed each other and then I burst out laughing and couldn't stop. Every time I felt like I calmed down enough we'd try to kiss again and I would giggle uncontrollably again. Luckily he thought it was cute.
At my dad's funeral I was standing next to the coffin with my grandma, his mother, and I just thought he looked ridiculous. He was a very vain man...Anyway, I made a joke to my grandma about how if he could see himself he'd roll over in his grave. I started laughing, my grandma started laughing, and my aunt who was sitting about 5 rows back heard us and started laughing. It actually makes for a good memory for the 3 of us, but the people who walked in while we were laughing didn't understand.
I was taking an entrance exam in a large, silent room full of others who were also taking the test. Everything was going fine 'till I came to a multiple choice question for which one of possible answers was "Kumquat." I have no idea why, but "kumquat" struck me funny. I started giggling, and the more I tried to stop, the worse it got. I had my face buried in my arms on the desk when the instructor came by, tapped me on the shoulder, and asked if I was all right. I lifted my head, tears streaming down my face, and only managed to squeak out "kumquat" before almost falling out of my chair in a full-on laughing fit. He stared me, thinking, I'm sure, that I'd lost my mind.
After helping me out into the hallway, he brought me a glass of water and asked if I needed to talk about my "test anxiety." I've never had test anxiety in my life. It's just... well... kumquat...
I gather "kumquat" wasn't the correct answer!
I took my girlfriend to see The Omen when it came out in the '70s. There is a scene where this big plate of glass comes falling off the building or crane and cuts one of the character's head off! I was freaked out...my girlfriend, however, burst out in this silent movie theater, absolutely hysterical with laughter! I thought she lost her mind! We didn't go to too many more movies after that!
Many years ago, I was in the Air Force, they asked me to record a message (aka advertisement) for the radio listening folks back home. I was Airman of the month for the base. They gave me a script, handed me a microphone, and I started giggling. I believe we tried to do this for over an hour, but every time I started talking, I'd burst out in laughter. The folks back home had to wait for me to get there before they heard my voice.... I know the tech was wondering what they heck it was about me that made them give me such an honor.
I think mine might be the worst of all - I was in my breast cancer support group and this darling lady was telling a super sad story of a close friend and at the end of it she said the lady went outside and shot herself in the head! I busted out laughing and everyone else did, too - except the poor lady telling of her terrible event, of course - it was real bad. I'll never forget the look on her face. Thank God we had a great councelor who explained the outburst especially since we were all in a real bad new situation with our boobs gone and going thru chemo, radiation and just trying to survive. BUT, she and I became really close and good friends...
I used to struggle with this when my daughter would tell me bad things that happened to her. I felt absolutely horrible because she would be telling me about something bad and I would be struggling not to smile. It was anxiety, not that I was glad the bad thing was happening! To this day I feel terrible about that.
I took my wheelchair-bound mother to vote at the last Presidential election and we both sat at a long table instead of the standing booths to vote. The first local item on the ballot was a proposition to remove an old voter registrar rule stating "idiots" shall not be employed at voting locations. I was so shocked to see the word "idiots" on a ballot, I burst out laughing - at the same time my mother read it and started laughing, too. I think what they meant was that the rule should be removed because the language was archaic, when "idiot" meant someone mentally impaired, not like we use the word now. But it came out sounding like they meant we should start employing idiots. As usual, the voting area was as quiet as a library - except for my mother and me, who could not stop laughing with tears running down our cheeks. Ten minutes later, I still couldn't vote for the President because I was still stuck on "idiots." I finally got myself together and whispered to my mom, "What the heck are you going to vote on that one?" She said, "Well, I don't know if I really want idiots working the ballots - there's already enough of them on the ballots running for office!" And that started us all over again......
I went to the movies with a group of friends, and we saw the really gruesome movie 28 Weeks Later, which is basically about zombies. My best friend who went along didn’t realized until the movie started that it was a horror movie and spent almost the whole movie covering her eyes. During a particular gory part where a character gets his face ripped off, I and the gentleman next to my friend had our eyes covered too. It was at this point my scared friend started laughing uncontrollably at how ridiculous it was to have a movie so gross that no one would watch. This prompted both me and the guy next to us to start laughing too, loudly enough to get looks from other movie goers. Trying to cover both our eyes and mouths to keep from seeing the movie/laughing more, really only increased our giggles. It got to a point that for the rest of the movie whenever one of us couldn’t watch we also had to stifle a giggle.
I cracked up at my own wedding. Something the minister said struck me as funny, and I couldn't stop. My soon to be husband was hissing at me to get it together but as soon as controlled myself, the giggles started again. I could hear my dad in the pew behind me snickering at my predicament which didn't help! Most of the wedding guests thought I was crying from joy-but actually they were tears of laughter!!
I was sitting in the courtroom with a crowd of people waiting for my divorce to be approved and my mother asked to borrow some lotion. All I had with me was some cuticle cream, however once she got some on her hands she was grossed out by the oily texture and gave me the most comical look of disgust I have ever seen! I started giggling from the stress and then that set her off and so on and so forth. I don't know what the other people in the courtroom thought of us!
I was in my car with my 9 yo daughter in the back seat. I was upset with her about something that had just happened and I turned around and said to her "shut-up and put on your bathing suit!" My daughter burst out in hysterical laughter because she knew I meant to say "shut-up and put on your seat-belt!" But it just didn't come out right. We both burst into hysterical laughter, and we still laugh about that to this day.
When my husband asked me to marry him, he was so nervous that he got a fit of the giggles, and must have tried to get the words out ten times. Finally he had me laughing, too, and we were laughing so hard that the one question took about 15 minutes from the time he opened his mouth till the time I finally understood what he was trying to say. Luckily, we weren't in public. We've been married almost 23 years, and he's still silly.
This happens to me all the time. Usually its appropriate (like I honestly think something is funny) but sometimes its VERY inappropriate. When its inappropriate, its called an inappropriate affect I think. I always chuckle and smile when I'm in an argument with someone. I can be crying and seriously furious but I will laugh without fail. Sometimes when I'm in a really uncomfortable situation, I'll randomly laugh (or worst, I'll make a bad joke and then laugh). I believe its a coping/defensive mechanism of sorts. Laughing makes you feel good after all, so I imagine that perhaps sometimes when we feel sad or anxious, our body makes us laugh to make us feel better?
One time, the police was interrogating me, my boyfriend, and my cousin because someone got shot and came to my apartment complex for help. The police searched my apartment talking about thinking a 4th person was in there and then started questioning my boyfriend. I was SO nervous because I really don't like police officers and it was a very uncomfortable situation. So I was kinda in a corner laughing nonstop. They asked him about someone he knew around his neighborhood and I blurted out, "He don't know anybody anywhere! HAHAHA!" Everyone in the room looked at me like I was crazy and after some more questions (especially since my outburst made my boyfriend seem more suspicious, lol), they finally left us alone. And for the record, there was only the 3 of us in the apartment and we really had nothing to do with the guy that got shot. We opted to not get involved very much 'cause other people were helping, he was getting hostile (I think he wanted help from a specific person in the complex), and we had a good feeling that he got shot because he was up to no good.
Another time I started laughing when I was telling my boyfriend about getting raped by my ex. Not a very funny situation at all. Then I made a joke about it 'cause I was getting uncomfortable. But oddly enough, my boyfriend laughed with me and it actually made me feel better. I cried afterward, but that initial laughing spell was so weird to me before I started learning that its actually normal to laugh when you're upset.
And yet another time, I burst into laughter at my grandma's funeral. However, that was also because my little cousin was acting kinda inappropriately and was telling me a joke during the funeral lol. The joke was seriously hilarious and I had to fight to not laugh at her. So it was both inappropriate and appropriate.
There was one time where I inappropriately thought something was funny. Have any of you seen that video of the girl who got the flu shot and then her body got all messed up and the only way she could talk normally was by running and stuff? I showed my boyfriend that video and burst into laughter. He had the most mortified look I've ever seen on his face. He's like, "What's wrong with you!? Her life is ruined!" and even though he's seriously upset, I just can't stop laughing. He gets kinda pissed and then I explain to him that he laughs at horrible things sometimes too and he lightened up, lol.
So yeah...this is a problem I constantly have. Oh and Dr. Provine is an awesome professor!
I could relate to this one. Once I actually got hancuffed by police in front of my house, even though I hadn't done anything wrong (long story, not really their fault.) The whole situation was extremely humiliating; and in fact the cop actually said some sexually inappropriate things to me while I was in the patrol car to boot. I still cringe to think about it. When I told my mom, however, I guess I was laughing. She now insists that I "enjoyed" the whole thing because I "laughed gleefully" about it. No matter how many times I try to tell her how humiliated I was, she refuses to believe me to this day.
When I was a teenager there was a poster that was very popular that said"Yea tho I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, because I'm the meanest son of a b**ch (or mf'er) in the valley. I think it came from a Megadeath song...anyway, when I went to the funeral of a good friend of my brothers, whom I adored, the preacher started in with that Psalm, and not knowing the Bible I didn't realize what it was and only knew the poster, so I started to giggle. I was horrified at my reaction, I pretended to have a coughing fit and left the room. I've never forgotten it (over 30 years now) but I know Billy would have laughed his a** off, so I'm ok with it.
i did a handstand during a performence one time and fell cus out of no where i started laughing hahahaha ill never forget my first drag performance ahahaha
I remember one time in an American Literature class that a friend and I burst out laughing at a horrible time. It was when we had to watch the move Of Mice and Men. In the ending one of the main characters has to shoot his friend, because he is slightly retarded and is unable to control his own strenght because of it and accidently murders a woman. Well in the book, which we read before seeing the movie, explains the scene as a very sad emotional part and he dies in a very emotional epic moment. Then when you watch the movie they build up to the moment and then the guy simply shoots him and his friend just plops forward dead. Well my friend and I, obviously having similiar humors, simply bust out laughing at how anticlimatic it was. The class had been completely silent throughout this whole time, so of course everyone heard us and we got some pretty nasty stares. We had to explain ourselves since half of them in there thought we were laughing because he died. Ha that was an interesting moment, and makes me laugh just thinking about it.
I seem to get into a laughing fit whenever I pass gas- either voluntarily (in front of my hubby) or by accident (in front of someone else). I think it is the embarassment of the situation, even though it is a normal, natural occurrance. Also at times of intense emotion such as anger or rage, I can break into a laughing fit which usually diffuses the situation and releases a flood of endorphins. I think laughter is the best pain-killer.