Anyone find that they are sometimes "too careful" not to laugh and find that you are not "acting naturally"? I guess I have a problem of knowing whats considered funny and whats not. Generally, when the death of a person is mentioned, it is not funny. However, I don't understand why people would then have a slight chuckle if they died in a funny way? But then again, it doesn't always happen. Even in the topic of death, I have trouble judging when its funny.
Aside from the topic of death, I also have issues of when to laugh and when not to laugh.
A classic example of my troubles with this is in lecture class in university. Sometimes the prof says something and I sniff my nose a bit (so slightly funny) but then the whole class is quiet. Then, you have other times when the whole class suddenly laughs and you figure this was not supposed to be funny. An example would be when the prof told us a story of how a women known as "Typhoid Mary" (I won't explain in detail here, if interested in details, look it up) had a certain disease but she had no symptoms and as a result got other people sick. The prof then said that because there were no antibiotics back then, she was thrown in jail. At that moment, the class laughed. But I don't get it, why was it funny that she was thrown in jail for having a disease? There may not be a better way to deal with her (you could say it in a better way like "quarantine"), but how is that funny? It was not her fault that she got the disease. Then there are moments when the prof would laugh but no one thinks is funny.
I don't know when to laugh so I guess the best way to handle it is that unless you're "absolutely sure its funny", its better to "delay the laugh". If others find it funny, then I MAY decide to laugh along (depending on if I find it funny, I don't want to laugh just to "follow the crowd").
18 Feb 2011, 1:12 pm
