Shamefully, against my will, and much to the chagrin of my friends and family members, I am definitely suscestible to bouts of inappropriate laughter. Lots of terrible, serious things make me grin, and no matter how old I grow I remain powerless against this weird force of nature.
It’s just laughter, though, so how harmful can that be?!?!?!
If an old person fall down, well good grief, apparently just thinking about it is making me laugh! I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but that is FUNNY STUFF. And obviously I am a bad person.
If a small animal, but especially a cat, makes any kind of offensive maneuver against a human, that is giggling gold to me.
If I hear a man scream in fear like a little girl, no matter the mortal danger, it is hilarious. I crave to hear a squeaky, panicky voice shred a grown man’s face against his will. And if either this or the cat-human thing happens on television, you can bet your angry scowl I will be rewinding and watching that bad boy for an hour and a half.
This next one is bad. It could cause you to stop reading my blog forever and shake your head slowly in disgust, breathing dramatically as you click the X button in the upper right hand corner of your monitor. Ready?
When my husband or one of our children or maybe one of my parents or siblings has suffered a M-I-N-O-R injury, maybe something that just causes some momentary stress or requires little more than a dab of N-n-n-neo… Sporin… and a bandage, well, it is embarrassing, but I do laugh. Out loud. It has caused a few fights, rest assured.
I like to think that it’s part of my maternal instincts, actually. You know, maybe the annoying (and potentially infuriating) giggles from your should-be caregiver can distract you from your pain. That kind of thing.
Today Handsome was mad at me for something. Something kind of big. And I had to cover my face with both hands and pull on the skin beneath my eyes to try and settle down. Because the madder he got the funnier it was to me. I COUDLN’T HELP IT!!! It was uncontrollable! Try as I might, I could not wipe that stupid grin off of my guilty face, and of course that fueled his anger fire a bit.
He broke for a just moment, chortling at me with adorable mercy. But then to compensate for this breach in strategy he dove into further explanation of why he was so mad at me, and GOD HELP ME it was funny!!!
I think maybe I am allergic to crisis and laughter is how the allergy manifests itself. Lots of things make it worse and nothing really makes it better except to just laugh it out.
If you are ever the unhappy victim of my inappropriate laughter, just let the goofy flame burn itself out. Don’t bother trying to reason with me at all. FOR SURE do not say, “I am serious!!!”
Oh man, anyone who is serious is instantly hilarious to me, that’s just how it goes.
Thank you, MamaKat, for prompting me to admit this terrible truth. I feel better, sort of. At lots of other people’s expense.
