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The Urge to Laugh at Inappropriate Times.

Cavynaut

Cavynaut

Gone But Not Forgotten
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A colleague and I were talking about this this evening. We have both experienced the urge to laugh during serious occasions, such as funerals. Is such a reaction very common? I'm sure that I've read that it is a recognised condition with its very own name.

Can anyone help with more information?
 
I've experienced that, many times. During the middle of church, I often suddently remember hilarious things that happened to me years ago. :lol:
 
It's common enough to have a sitcom treatment. In one episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary - who has been severe all episode on the jokes made about the death of Chuckles the Clown (he was killed by an elephant while dressed as a peanut) by her co-workers - suddenly feels the laugh rising in her at the funeral. The minister notices her desperate attempts to hold it in, and tells her that she needs to laugh, that Chuckles would want that, he hated to see people cry, making people laugh was what he lived for - at which point she suddenly can't laugh anymore and bursts into tears.

I just finished reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in which he recounts how he came to be laughing hysterically all the way home from school after his big sister burns to death in a trailer fire. It's partly related to the length of time he's waited for his dad (he becomes convinced that his dad has been in a wreck coming to get him and is dead too), and partly because, in his first fit of relief laughter, he coughs up a chunk of cantaloupe - one of his sister's favorite foods, but one he can't stand and hasn't eaten in years, so where does it come from?

The laughter of the entire tribe during his grandmother's funeral is, however, normal and natural.
 
Do you mean Hysterical Laughter? That's when a person laughs in times of stress even though he doesn't find anything funny. Here's a little bit on it: http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... ghter.html It sounds like it can make your life miserable.

I think a lot of us laugh during serious occasions because we actually do find something funny to laugh about. My family has always joked during serious moments. It's a coping thing. You see or do something absurd, or there's some little unintentionally comedic moment. Oh, for more self-control.
:oops:
 
The former Mr Snail used to feel most offended. :lol:
 
That reminds me of an account I recently read regarding the actions that resulted in a soldier getting the medal of honor. Source:
http://listverse.com/2010/02/19/10-asto ... -of-honor/


9
1SG Leonard A. Funk
WWII

Funk

One of the more darkly humorous episodes of warfare occurred on 29 January 1945, in Holzheim, Belgium. Funk and his paratroopers were assaulting the town, and he left a rearguard of 4 men, while he scouted ahead to link up with other units, Those 4 men had to guard about 80 German prisoners.

Another German patrol of 10 happened by and overwhelmed the 4 Americans, freeing the prisoners and arming them. When Funk returned around the corner of a building, he was met by a German officer with an MP-40 in his stomach. The German shouted something at him, and Funk looked around.

There were now about 90 Germans, about half of them armed, and 5 Americans, disarmed except for Funk. The German shouted the same thing at him again, and Funk started laughing. He claimed later that he tried to stop laughing, but the fact that the German was shouting in German touched a nerve. Funk didn’t speak German. Neither did any of the other Americans. Why would the German officer expect him to understand?

His laughter and non-compliance caused some of the Germans to start laughing. Funk shrugged at them and started laughing so hard he had to bend over. He called to his men, “I don’t understand what he’s saying!” All the while, the German officer was shouting more and more angrily.

Then, quick as lightning, Funk swung his Thompson submachine gun up and emptied the entire clip into the German, 30 rounds of .45 ACP. Before the other Germans could react, he had yanked the clip out and slammed another in and opened fire on all of them, screaming to his men to pick up weapons. They did so, and proceeded to gun down 20 men. The rest dropped their weapons and put their hands up.

Then Funk started laughing again and said to his men, “That was the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever seen!”
Click to expand...
 
Happens to me all the time.
Also I get the urge to do really inappropriate things (such as animal noises) in serious meetings. I normally bite the inside of my cheek and stare out of the window until the urge goes away.
If you have an interview, and get these kinds of urges, never imagine your interviewer on the loo like they sometimes tell you. Hysterics never go down well in that situation! :D
 
Quite a good article here...

J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 11:253-258, May 1999
© 1999 American Psychiatric Press, Inc.

Involuntary Laughter and Inappropriate Hilarity
Mario F. Mendez, M.D., Ph.D., Tomoko V. Nakawatase, M.D. and Charles V. Brown, M.D.
Laughter is a particularly human behavior. Neuropsychiatrists are faced with disorders of laughter, yet the nature of this behavior and its disturbances remains obscure. The authors report an unusual patient with involuntary and unremitting laughter for 20 years and review the literature. The nature of laughter suggests that it has a unique role in human communication, particularly in the social exploration of incongruous information. The disorders of laughter suggest a neuroanatomical circuitry that includes the anterior cingulate gyrus, caudal hypothalamus, temporal-amygdala structures, and a pontomedullary center. Treatment includes the use of antidepressant and antimanic agents for disorders of laughter.


Key Words: Laughter, Involuntary • Pseudobulbar Palsy • Seizures
 
I suffer from an unfortunate family trait on my mum's side where our near automatic response to someone hurting themselves is to dissolve into hysterical laughter. My dad once walked into a patio door he thought was opened and it took a full 30 minutes before anyone else in the room was calm enough to ask if he was hurt.
I say it's a near automatic reaction because we seem to be able to control it if the incident is potentially serious. Recently a mate smacked his head off the boot latch on his car, cutting himself in the process and that, of course, wasn't remotely funny. So I guess it's likely that the laughing is caused by relief once we've ascertained the injury/accident isn't serious, multiplied by how hilarious the accident was to watch. :)
 
Years ago a friend of mine got knocked over by a cyclist in Amsterdam, who was travelling the wrong way up a one way street. He literally took off. When he came round I don't think it really helped to see my big grinning face looming over him asking the rhetorical question 'are you OK?'. I think it is a release of tension, but it of of course, extremely inappropriate.
 
It's been at least two decades since I most recently read Bram Stoker's text, but I recall that in DRACULA Dr. Abraham Van Helsing experiences a wholly-inappropriate laughing fit at Lucy Westenra's funeral.
 
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