I Laugh at The Worst Times!

J

Jocko

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PNW
Once at a wedding, twice at a funeral. Plenty of times during meetings and plenty of times at church. Once as juror number 1 at trial in front of God, the judge and everyone in the courtroom. (I thought I was in trouble but the judge recessed thank God. Only time can stop it, usually 5 minutes or so. No it’s not a disorder, I just find things funny sometimes and laughing makes me laugh harder. (I’m often joined by others, lol.) I suppose there are worse problems.
 
I'll never forget when my grandfather died. We're at the funeral home at the end of the funeral and my grandmother wanted to go stand at the coffin in the room alone while my foster brother played "The Old Rugged Cross", which was my grandfather's favorite hymn.

We were all pretty ragged about the death because we loved my grandpa tremendously. We're sitting in the "family room" and listening to the organ playing. Now my foster brother was a very, very good organist (he was blind) but he tended to wander over into his Liberace personna at the drop of a hat. He started out light on the song but pretty soon started adding crescendos and trills and fol-de-rols. It was like a musical roller-coaster (by the way, Grandma LOVED it). It got louder and wilder.

One of us started giggling and then we all started. We'd stop and get ourselves under control and then make the mistake of looking at each other and it would all start up again. My mother is hissing at us to stop before Grandma came back into the room, but we couldn't. We just couldn't. The emotional strain of the past few days caught up with us and we cracked.

Finally, we had to all go to the restroom and splash cold water on our faces to calm down. It's amazing what grief and strain can do to your emotions. Grandma would have been beyond upset if she had seen us, but we weren't doing it to be disrespectful........we couldn't help ourselves. Luckily, we looked like we had been crying when we came out, so all was well.

I can't help but feel Grandpa would have thought it was funny. He had a great sense of humor.
 
Well, I've laughed at every funeral I ever attended. In fact, we say it isn't a "good service" if someone didn't make people laugh at something the deceased person did. Now laughing at an inappropriate time is a different story. Seems like a disorder to me or else it's a serious lack of self control.
 
I was hopeless at trying not to laugh at church, there was always something that would set me off.
It happened again about 5 years ago at my youngest grandson's school.

We all gathered in the school chapel, which honoured the school graduates who would be leaving for high school the next year.
It was stifling hot, and we were all fanning ourselves with the program booklet, when this poor child went up for communion and projectile vomited all over the priest. Everyone caught their breath.

My youngest son, who was standing right next to me, leaned over and whispererd "Pea Soup."

That was the end of me. I had to leave and compose myself outside, which never happened. 😁
 
Jocko said:
Once at a wedding, twice at a funeral. Plenty of times during meetings and plenty of times at church. Once as juror number 1 at trial in front of God, the judge and everyone in the courtroom. (I thought I was in trouble but the judge recessed thank God. Only time can stop it, usually 5 minutes or so. No it’s not a disorder, I just find things funny sometimes and laughing makes me laugh harder. (I’m often joined by others, lol.) I suppose there are worse problems.
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I have inappropriate laughing at times and I think mine is fueled by anxiety. I laughed at my grandfather's funeral and at the chiropractors and I felt stupid.
 
Laughing like that I find, is insensitive and disturbing to me. I know people who do. It's a nervous laugh that often hides their real feelings. I don't understand why people laugh at anything, opening a window. Laughing at deafness, accidents...
Then there are folks who never laugh at all.
 
Jocko said:
Once at a wedding, twice at a funeral. Plenty of times during meetings and plenty of times at church. Once as juror number 1 at trial in front of God, the judge and everyone in the courtroom. (I thought I was in trouble but the judge recessed thank God. Only time can stop it, usually 5 minutes or so. No it’s not a disorder, I just find things funny sometimes and laughing makes me laugh harder. (I’m often joined by others, lol.) I suppose there are worse problems.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure that is always a bad thing. Sometimes in the most stoic of situations you perceive what you're hearing as so mundane that it is laughable. Rather I say the speaker might do well to realize that you as the listener are closely following along with a keener sense of what is said than others in the same audience. I know many jurists and to say that they sometimes take themselves too seriously is a fact. We once had a pastor whom I felt used some of the most absurd analogy that he should have been embarrassed, I know I was embarrassed as a listener.
 
I once attended a memorial service for a woman who died much too young. She was a talented singer, who truly loved music. When her husband was speaking about her, he said she had wanted to select the music for her own memorial service. He was going to play it for us now.

Everybody was expecting something dignified and solemn. What we heard was a CD of Kermit the Frog singing "The Rainbow Connection."
The surprised laughter from everyone broke the solemn mood and added to the warmth and love in the room.
 
I hope this doesn't offend but one situation still lives with me. The youth pastor who officiated at our teenage son's funeral delivered what in my opinion a celebration of life as it should be.
He took the time to assemble clips of video and still photos featuring truly meaningful moments in the life of our son for our family as well as friends who truly knew and loved him.

During that enduring service there were ooh and aaahs as well as warm laughter along with some tears of loving joy. That church was crowded and and there were many who didn't find a seat, but I think we all knew he would have been approving of the service. Twenty six years later I still find peace in those moments.
 
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