Am I the only person who simply CANNOT control their laughter?

[maciec]

I have noticed that recently I seem to laugh at all the wrong times! For example, when family/friends are telling me an important story, guess what? I start laughing. I don't know whether its nervous laughter or what, I just can't seem to control it. And the weird thing is, this is a new thing, that several people have recently pointed out to me.

I have that nervous laugh also, so bad that I laughed through my wedding vows. I felt horrible, but dh knew why I was laughing so that was good. Thank God no one else could tell that I was giggling

 

[MScott1851]

Another embarrassing person here!

I "ruined" my best friends' wedding (according to my mother, everyone else thought it was funny) because I started laughing about two minutes in, and literally couldn't stop. Everything was funny. The preacher kept repeating himself, the ring bearer kept touching my butt, a bee was divebombing the bride, you name it, it made me laugh. I looked like I was having a silent seizure, shaking head to toe, tears just dripping onto the floor, face screwed up like I'd tasted a lemon. The best man and I were both doing this, and feeding off each other. Everytime one of us would get calmed down, we'd make eye contact and get tickled all over again. When we got up the aisle after the wedding, he and I just HOWLED. I laughed so hard I wanted to throw up.

It seems I have this problem when I'm with certain people, too. I was at a college graduation Friday night, and it was the longest ceremony EVER. All the graduates were textmessaging people in the audience and swapping camera pics. I took this one of me and my friend Scott in the audience and sent it to the guy who was graduating:

Then I sent him a picture of his mom pretending to smoke a cigarette while looking at her watch, and a picture of my cleavage. (I won't post those here! )

When he saw them, he got tickled, then we started laughing, and we were literally sobbing with laughter, then everyone around us started laughing and eventually our whole section ended up getting shushed by the speaker.

Laughter is contagious...you can't be the only one laughing!

 

[maciec]

That so sounds like me. I am so quick to cry when I start laughing. And it seems to take me forever to recompose.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

This is going to make me sound like a horrible person, but there was absolutely no way I could have straightened out enough to speak coherently to the woman. I would have ended up pointing to her shoe with tears rolling down my face. She would have thought I was a complete nutcase!

You are a complete nutcase!!! But I mean that in the nicest way!

 

[luvflorida]

Another embarrassing person here!

I "ruined" my best friends' wedding (according to my mother, everyone else thought it was funny) because I started laughing about two minutes in, and literally couldn't stop. Everything was funny. The preacher kept repeating himself, the ring bearer kept touching my butt, a bee was divebombing the bride, you name it, it made me laugh. I looked like I was having a silent seizure, shaking head to toe, tears just dripping onto the floor, face screwed up like I'd tasted a lemon. The best man and I were both doing this, and feeding off each other. Everytime one of us would get calmed down, we'd make eye contact and get tickled all over again. When we got up the aisle after the wedding, he and I just HOWLED. I laughed so hard I wanted to throw up.

It seems I have this problem when I'm with certain people, too. I was at a college graduation Friday night, and it was the longest ceremony EVER. All the graduates were textmessaging people in the audience and swapping camera pics. I took this one of me and my friend Scott in the audience and sent it to the guy who was graduating:

Then I sent him a picture of his mom pretending to smoke a cigarette while looking at her watch, and a picture of my cleavage. (I won't post those here! )

When he saw them, he got tickled, then we started laughing, and we were literally sobbing with laughter, then everyone around us started laughing and eventually our whole section ended up getting shushed by the speaker.

Laughter is contagious...you can't be the only one laughing!

Now you're a person who totally understands my laughing problem!

The college thing reminds me of when my oldest daughter graduated last year. The ceremony went on FOREVER. It took over half an hour just for the graduates to march onto the field. We had seats where we couldn't see anything going on. It started drizzling halfway through the ceremony, and we were on folding chairs on a grassy field. People were walking around and slipping all over the wet field. My son kept up a running commentary on the situation, and he has a wonderfully dry sense of humor that had me in stitches.

 

[DISUNC]

Count me in!

And the older I get the worst it gets!

Myself and one of my co-workers cannot even be in the same meetings anymore. We just look at each other & LOOSE IT!

Really the MORE serious somebody is....the more I laugh!

Just recently I posted a story on this site about going to WDW in 1975...I had to call my friend who went with me.....WE LAUGHED SO HARD THAT FOR 10 MINUTES on a long distance call....we were beyond repair!

 

[ducklite]

Anyone watch any of the "Friends" gag reels?? Well when you see Lisa Kudrow laughing, ahem, that's me. LOL! I'm as bad as she is, but throw in a snort or too (I am my mother's daughter!).

I'm a "snorter" too, and that just makes me laugh harder.

I had to do an interview a few months ago, and the guy cracked a joke at the beginning of the interview that made me start to laugh, and listening though the whole tape you can hear us giggling. This guy is the same way, he giggles when he hears other people giggle, and we were feeding off each other--it's a hysterical interview to listen to, because we were both trying soooo hard to hold back absolute fits of laughter--which happened after the tape was turned off. He said it was one of the most fun interviews he's ever done.

Anne

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

You are not alone. I sometimes laugh too loud, or at least that's what other people think.

Years ago, DH and I went to a Fri showing of this movie called "How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days", which was incredibly funny. At one point, 2/3 of the way through the movie, one of the tweenage girls who was sitting in the same row as us turns to me and goes "SSHHHH! You're laughing too loud."
I was kind of like . I was unaware you could laugh too loudly. I did try to keep it quieter after that, though. When I told DH about it, he thought they were just being rude.

Sometimes if I get started, I can't stop either. Something small will set me off and I"ll start laughing and laughing. Every time I think I get it under control, I'll start up again.

I also laugh when I'm in pain. Why that is I don't know. I'll stub my toe or run into the door by accident and start giggling.

TOV

 

[luvflorida]

I don't know about anyone else, but if I see someone walk into something or fall down unexpectedly, there is no way I am going to be of any help to that person. It's like real life slapstick and I CANNOT help but laugh. I need to just remove myself from the situation and hope that someone with more sense can see if the person needs help. And, days later, heck even years later, I can think about it and laugh all over again.

I think America's Funniest Home Videos was put on TV just for me!

A few years ago, when my oldest daughter was in high school, I went to pick her up after school one day. It was a wintry day and there were patches of ice on the ground. I pulled up in front of the school, my daughter got in the car, and just busted out laughing. She started telling me about a rather large teacher who had come out of the building running and she slipped and fell right in front of my daughter and another student.

So, I'm already in absolute hysterics just picturing this in my mind. My daughter and the other student had the presence of mind to go over to the teacher as she's laying on the ground and ask if she's okay. The teacher just looks up at them and says, "Well, I guess I picked the wrong day to wear clogs." Well, that did it for my daughter. She quickly turned away, headed inside the building and started cracking up. When she told me what the teacher said, I almost drove off the road. I could hardly see where I was going.

Thankfully, the teacher was fine, and thankfully I wasn't there to see it happen. Even now, as I tell this story, I am laughing so hard I have tears coming down my face.

Yes, I know I have a problem!

 

[Jeafl]

For some reason I only get out of control when I am laughing in a place where I have no business laughing. I have had to walk out of funerals, weddings, wakes, communions, actually church in general. I am an embarrassment to my family at times.

 

[AllyandJack]

My mother and I are notorious wedding laughers. We just can't help it. At my cousin's wedding, my mother, father, and I were sitting in the church. The music was starting. People were coming down the aisle. All of a sudden, my father moves his arm and discovers a massive tag on the wrist of his new jacket. This this was HUGE and stapled to the sleeve. He silently holds his arm out to show me and my mother and we start laughing hysterically. We're trying to be quiet, but the tag was huge and went halfway to his elbow. He had it on for hours and never noticed. My mother goes into her new purse to get us some tissues. She goes to close it and discovers it's a snap-close purse. This loud CLAP echoes through the church. That was it for us. We ended up slinking out of the church's side entrance - where we ran into the odd woman my other cousin married. She was sitting on the steps in her potatoe sack dress and flip-flops. She didn't "do" church. We told her why we were out there and she didn't even crack a smile. That's when my mother and I realized that it was, indeed, "just us".

 

[luvflorida]

My mother and I are notorious wedding laughers. We just can't help it. At my cousin's wedding, my mother, father, and I were sitting in the church. The music was starting. People were coming down the aisle. All of a sudden, my father moves his arm and discovers a massive tag on the wrist of his new jacket. This this was HUGE and stapled to the sleeve. He silently holds his arm out to show me and my mother and we start laughing hysterically. We're trying to be quiet, but the tag was huge and went halfway to his elbow. He had it on for hours and never noticed. My mother goes into her new purse to get us some tissues. She goes to close it and discovers it's a snap-close purse. This loud CLAP echoes through the church. That was it for us. We ended up slinking out of the church's side entrance - where we ran into the odd woman my other cousin married. She was sitting on the steps in her potatoe sack dress and flip-flops. She didn't "do" church. We told her why we were out there and she didn't even crack a smile. That's when my mother and I realized that it was, indeed, "just us".

If I had been there and saw you laughing and then heard the purse snap shut and saw you guys sneaking out, I would have been right behind you.

 

[AnaheimGirl]

Count me in!

I can have a really hard time giving the "appalled mother" look to the kids when they do something they shouldn't. If it's the least bit funny, I cannot help laughing or at least cracking a smile.

Like last night, I took the kids to McDonald's. We were seated right next to the playplace and a bunch of kids were throwing their little Build-A-Bear bears in the air and catching them. When one little boy threw his a little higher than he could control, it came sailing through the air right towards me, bounced of the top of my head, landed smack dab in the middle of my Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad, bounced out taking a few lettuce leaves with it, and finally came to a rest on the table.

The boys mother was suitably appalled and apologized profusely, but I was cracking up. Thank goodness it wasn't my kid that did it. I think I'd have been laughing even harder if I'd been able to see the whole thing.

 

[AnaheimGirl]

If I had been there and saw you laughing and then heard the purse snap shut and saw you guys sneaking out, I would have been right behind you.

Me too! I can laugh myself silly with absolutely no idea what I'm laughing about.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I'm right there with you! Once I start laughing, I just can't stop...even when everyone else around me has. In high school, I had to leave Driver's Ed. class a few times to calm myself down. My best friend was in the class with me and something would ALWAYS set us off. I'm surprised we didn't fail Driver's Ed. lol.

Sometimes I'll just think of something funny and totally crack up. No wonder I get strange looks all the time.

 

[AllyandJack]

I wish I had all of you with me during my LSATs. Our proctor went to sit down after doing her pass through the aisles and the chair on wheels flew out from underneath her, she slammed against the chalkboard, and slid to the ground. I was the only one laughing. I sat there thinking that maybe I wasn't law school material. She bounced right up, she wasn't hurt, so it was FUNNY. Why didn't anyone else laugh!? If you guys had been with me, I would have felt more validated.

 

[momof2inPA]

My sisters and I get the Church giggles whenever we are together at mass. Midnight mass at Christmas is the worst. Another embarrassing incident was when I was with some Catholic ladies at one lady's house saying the rosary. Everyone took their turn saying a decade. When it was my turn, I tripped over a word and giggled the whole rest of the time. Even though all the ladies were very sweet about my problem, I've never gone back to "rosary time" again.

 

[luvflorida]

I wish I had all of you with me during my LSATs. Our proctor went to sit down after doing her pass through the aisles and the chair on wheels flew out from underneath her, she slammed against the chalkboard, and slid to the ground. I was the only one laughing. I sat there thinking that maybe I wasn't law school material. She bounced right up, she wasn't hurt, so it was FUNNY. Why didn't anyone else laugh!? If you guys had been with me, I would have felt more validated.

OMG, there would be no way I could have functioned after seeing that! I would have had to leave the room and come back another day!

 

[luvflorida]

I'm right there with you! Once I start laughing, I just can't stop...even when everyone else around me has. In high school, I had to leave Driver's Ed. class a few times to calm myself down. My best friend was in the class with me and something would ALWAYS set us off. I'm surprised we didn't fail Driver's Ed. lol.

Sometimes I'll just think of something funny and totally crack up. No wonder I get strange looks all the time.

I can relate! No kidding, I had teachers in school who would just know I was going to find something funny and all they had to do was look at me and I knew it was my cue to go stand in the hallway until I could compose myself.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

Okay, I'm totally laughing hysterically just reading these stories! I may have to close my office door soon.

I laugh at inappropriate times too. This is really sad, but when I found out that my grandfather (whom I was really close to) passed away, I cracked up. Obviously it wasn't funny, but do you know how hard it is to stifle your laughter when you know you should be crying and everyone else around you is? (I attribute that to nervous laughter...it's the only explanation). I've also laughed at weddings when absolutely nothing funny was going on. When my daughter does something she should be disciplined for and it's even a little funny, I totally lose it.

I was walking down the street near work a couple of weeks ago and a little old lady was walking in front of me. All of a sudden she fell, but I didn't see her fall. I just saw her walking one second and on the ground the next second. She didn't just lay there. She sprung up like a gymnast and just kept walking like nothing happened. Now if she was hurt, I'm sure I wouldn't have laughed, but since she was obviously okay, I could barely control my laughter...she just totally surprised me by jumping up like that and just walking off.

Sometimes I snort when I laugh too.