There's nothing quite like unleashing a gale of laughter. It's soothing, it's cathartic, it brightens your mood.
But timing is everything, don't you know? You should probably watch who, what, and where you laugh... just in case.
After Redditor Mircalenik209 asked the online community, "When was there a time where you shouldn't have laughed at something, but you did?" people shared their experiences. They're pretty hilarious, if we say so ourselves.
"When I was a student nurse..."
When I was a student nurse I was asked to tell a patient that his daughter couldn't come visit him because she fell down the stairs and had broken both her arms. I could barely contain myself, because the patient was there because he had broken both his arms.
"So to distract myself from crying..."
I laughed at my grandfather's funeral. Didn't shed a tear. It lead to few people ( neighbors , not family , fam knows what happened) thinking I did something bad to him.
My grandfather was bed ridden for 16 years ( his left side of the body was paralyzed) , I was 17 so basically all my life I've seen him bed ridden. And he was my best friend. He asked me not to cry and always think that God took him because he couldn't see him suffer anymore and wherever he's going he'll be happy. So to distract myself from crying I started thinking about all the good times we had and ended up laughing at one such memory. So yeah that was pretty terrible.
"His mom goes up..."
My friend's memorial service. He passed away at only 24. Obviously it's really somber and everyone is crying, his mom goes up to speak. One of my best friends who was one of his best friends used to joke about wanting to sleep with his mom. It was an ongoing dialect between them that was really hilarious.
His mom goes up, starts talking and he whispers "I still really want to motorboat your moms tits dude". Like four of us just lost it. It was extremely inappropriate and EVERYONE stopped and just looked at us. I tried to pretend I was crying to ease the tension.
Rest easy Chris, we all miss you.
"I buried my face in my hands..."
It happens to me more than I care to admit, but the worst time was at my brother's memorial. An aunt we had, who was a very nice person, had got religion recently and decided to sing a gospel song. The problem was she couldn't sing at all. She got up, with no backing music and sang a really out of tune gospel song. The worst part was she took really long pauses between some of the lyrics, so people started to clap thinking she was done with the song. She wasn't. This went on for like 5 minutes. She would pause, people would start to slow clap, then she would start caterwauling again. I buried my face in my hands and people sitting behind me started consoling me because they thought I was overcome with emotion, as my shoulders were shaking violently. I did have tears running down my face though.
I still feel very bad about this.
"In high school..."
In high school we watched a play where a girl dies of a drug overdose. The girl playing the part was way over dramatic, really chewing up the scenery, and when she finally collapsed dead on her bed the theater was dead silent. A kid in the audience yelled out "oh well" and the place exploded with laughter.
"At my Uncle Bill's funeral..."
At my Uncle Bill's funeral, my Aunt Mary claimed that she had "cared for him in his darkest times". I let out a solid "HA!". Everyone turned towards me. I finished with an uncontrollable giggle, poorly hidden behind my hand and a wad of tissues. No regerts. RIP Uncle Bill. 12/17/19.
When I was a kid I often found myself laughing at the most inappropriate reasons at things that were often not funny...
Case in point:
In 5th grade my class went on a field trip to see a Japanese Taiko drum performance at a local theater.
It was SO COOL, I was taken aback by how powerful the drums were.
About halfway through the performance one of the younger uber muscular Japanese American drummers came to the front of the stage and in a deep bass voice told us how he was going to sing us a song that his now dead grandfather taught him years ago. He started to tear up and rubbed away the tears.
He started singing.
It was in falsetto.
I'm not sure what it was, the song was BEAUTIFUL! but for whatever reason I felt an uncomfortable smile start forming on my lips. I panicked and internally started screaming "WHYNOW!?!WHYWHYWHYWHYWHY???" My lips parted to show my teeth and I giggled.
My teacher shot me a look and tutted under her breath and several of the girls next to me whispered that I was showing my true colors.
THE SONG WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!!
I never felt so betrayed by my body in my young life.
Years later I still think about that moment.
"In boot camp..."
In boot camp, I laughed at another recruit who was getting yelled at, because they were screaming some pretty funny s*** at him. Then they turned around to me...
"I started covering my mouth..."
Back when I was around 10-11 (ish), my family went to a funeral for an aunt that passed away due to cancer. My dad wasn't really close to/liked that aunt in particular (personal issues that are too boring to go into detail) but he still went to the funeral. He wasn't making a scene or talking bad about her or anything, he was just mainly keeping to himself.
So, during a moment of silence, my cousin (her daughter) started singing the Ave Maria as an eulogy (I guess) while everyone was sitting. Quietly, dad started mock-singing in a very high-pitch tone (quiet enough not to be heard by anyone around, loud enough to be heard by me, sitting by his side).
I started covering my mouth cause I wanted to laught so hard. The more I tried to contain myself the more my dad did the high-pitch singing, up to the point that my eyes were teary. Another aunt behind me saw me; bent over, holding my stomach and my mouth and I guess she thought I was crying. She leaned over and said: "Don't worry honey, she's in a better place."
I lost my s***. I lost it so bad. It was one of those laughing fits that the more you try to contain yourself, the more you laugh. Even my cousin stopped singing and just looked at me as if I had kill her mom myself. I excused myself and got out of there fast. I waited for the rest of my family inside the car while my the rest of the family just stared daggers at me.
During the car ride, I had to explain to my mom and my sister that my dad was the one who made me laugh. My dad just answered: "she's lucky I didn't bring my trombone and do the "wa-wa" while they were putting her on the ground."
"They asked to see my manager..."
I was 18-20 and working at a department store. 3 men walked up to me and struck up a conversation while buying white button up shirts.
Apparently they were buying matching shirts for a wedding. They asked if there was a child's suit section. One of them added "The best man lost so much weight..." I cut off the sentence with a chuckle, and he finished "that he died." and looked at me like I was a monster.
They all looked really sad or mad depending on who you looked at. They apparently were going to buy a suit for the son of the deceased that was stepping in for him.
They asked to see my manager and she was really disappointed in me for laughing at a story like that. I did my best to tell her that I had no idea it was something terrible like that and I was just laughing since I thought he lost so much weight he needed a kids suit. She didn't really buy it and she didn't respect me after that.
"LOL"
emoji laughing GIF by TwitterGiphyMy dad, using 9 "laughing tears" emojis to announce that our family cat whom we love dearly had passed away.
"Quiet Please...."
My sister and I at our uncles funeral. Our uncles brother-in-law started singing it was bad. Sister and I looked at each other with big stupid 'what the heck' eyes. We both cracked up but tried to play it off as crying. She and I had always been the ones to laugh at awkward situations.
"Dear Ms Smith"
My daughter's teacher's mom died, and the sub had all of the kids make cards and asked me to drop them off, as she lived near me. I was chatting with the teacher as she looked through them and she burst out laughing and handed me one- "Dear Ms Smith, I'm sorry about your mom, but hey, we all gotta go sometime."
"00 Dead"
When my uncle died, his casket was being lowered into the ground, and my cousin threw a flower onto the coffin and said 'from Cornwall with love', and I started laughing because it sounded like the worst James Bond film ever.
"Face Talk"
I didn't "laugh" but when I used to get uncomfortable my facial expression would look like I was smiling. I did it when my teacher was telling a sob story about herself. She got furious because she thought I was making fun of her and tried to get my family to send me off to a living facility for mentally challenged children.
"WEEEEE"
titanic GIFGiphyI laughed the first time I watched titanic since my brother was going "WEEEEEE" when the boat tilted and people were sliding down it.
"Gassed"
Anything at the library. Stuff didn't even have to be really funny, the fact that you needed to be quiet and this not allowed to laugh was insane. You tried to suppress it but the more you do, the funnier it gets until you just have to run outside and burst into laughter because the last name of a book's author sounded like.... a fart."
"there is nothing funny about this"
Once, a friend of mine got ACL reconstruction surgery and nearly died. They had mixed up the anesthesia for the spinal block and instead given her an emergency coagulant. She started having really bad seizures on the operating table and the doctors quickly put her in an induced coma. This lasted for two weeks (felt like a freaking eternity), during which they said they had no idea if the damage to her brain or other organs was permanent, or if she would ever wake up again.
The day it happened, I ended up leaving work early because I couldn't think straight, and as a result I missed a meeting I was supposed to go to. It wasn't a big deal but I had promised I would be there. The next day, a coworker asked me why I wasn't at the meeting. As I began to say that my friend was in a coma and we had no idea how bad it was but she may never wake up again, I started laughing uncontrollably. I even tried to say "there is nothing funny about this," but I just kept laughing and the coworker just looked at me in shock and confusion. I was pretty confused myself; I have never had that happen to me before or since that day. To this day I have no clue if she thought I was making up a ridiculous excuse to miss an unimportant meeting, thought I was a psychopath, or both.
My friend eventually made a full recovery, though she had to go back a second time to get the actual routine surgery she was meant to get in the first place.
EDIT: they gave her a coagulant, not an anticoagulant. If you nick a vein during a surgery and the patient starts to bleed a lot, they inject this stuff to keep them from bleeding out. This is what they accidentally put into her spine instead of anesthesia. Also corrected "spinal tap" to "spinal block." Sorry for my English!
"I'm a Fool"
In my Imperial Russian History course in university, one of the books was written by a guy with the last name "Overy" which sounds the same as "ovary" and I always had to suppress a giggle because I was and am an immature little moron haha.
"Locking Eyes"
One time on a school trip, a homeless man came up to me and was asking me for money, and my teacher shouted out (very loudly, in the middle of one of Paris's busiest squares) "don't look him in the eye!" Which made the giggles I was trying to hold in from being so nervous explode out of me. I got a serious telling off (from the same teacher) for "mocking the poor."
"Dear Ma & Pa"
Work From Home Kids GIF by MOODMANGiphyAs a kid I laughed during stressful situations, so I could barely hold it in when my parents were confronting me about almost flunking out of school.
"Flying Laughs"
Our entire 7/8 grade class (small catholic school) lost its shit when the teacher decided, in her infinite wisdom, to give a class about "flying buttresses." Every time she said it, we erupted into laughter. I still can't hear the word 22 years later without stifling a laugh.
"Feeling the Feels"
I still laugh during high stress situations. I have it under control but still will laugh as my first reaction to things, before I have time to process it and ponder it.
When my grandfather died when I was 10, my parents picked me up from my aunt and uncle's and went to my grandma. I don't remember all of it, but I remember my dad and I not playing around but he was making me laugh. They did tell me my grandfather died, but I hadn't processed it and just I was laughing.
My grandmother was extremely angry and basically shunned me for a couple of years. When I went home that night and saw the CD that I had borrowed from my grandfather on my desk, I broke down. I was crying hard and was very hurt.
Moral of the story is that my initial reaction may be laughing but it's not my first thoughts and feelings.
"Like a Sack of Potatoes"
Donating blood in college with a friend. We finish and go to the table for snacks where they have people to watch you, to make sure you don't pass out.
Well, my friend is 6'2" or something and meaty. We have a juice box and get ready to go. We both stand up and.... the life drains from his face and falls over like a sack of potatoes.... on top of another much smaller kid. Whelp I lose it and laugh like a hyena (to be faaaaaair I was also a bit light headed and out of it).
A nurse maybeeee 5 ft 100 pounds comes over and starts trying to roll my friend over , who is still unconscious on top of this poor kid who only went there to give blood.
He wakes up a minute later still on top of this dude, and I'm still laughing it up. The nurses then all give me the stink eye like I was somehow at fault here. I'm not a big guy and doubt I'd have been able to help even if I wasn't weak from donating. So I slink out of there with a smile on my face still but trying to hide it from the entire room now watching this scene play out with concern for my friend.
He's fine btw. And I love this story. 10/10 would laugh again.
"I know that Look"
Not me, but while we were watching a documentary about the KKK in school, and a klan member shows the camera his robes, the class weirdo said, "hey, my dad has that same jersey in his closet!" My friend lost it. I mean, he was wheezing and crying of laughter, but he tried to cover It up by pulling his shirt up. The teacher was so tired of him she didn't even care, so she tried to ignore it.
"Face First"
Baby Reaction GIFGiphyOnce when I was about, say, four I slammed my face against my driveway knocking out my two front teeth. I was laughing the entire half hour my dad was freaking out with my bloody mouth.
Still to this day I don't know how I was able to laugh when I should've been crying in the scenario.
Edit: why the hell is my most upvoted thing a comment about my yeeting my two front teeth?
"Brother/Grandpa"
At my grandfather's funeral, my uncle named all of the grandkids by name and how they took on certain attributes of my grandfather. He named everyone but my middle brother and when he looked at me to say "WTF!!" I laughed, and so did my other brother.
"Can't Stop"
A friend told me her grandma had terminal cancer, just a few minutes prior something funny had happened and it was still in my head. I started laughing about the funny thing, then realized how unbelievably inappropriate it was to be laughing at that moment, which just made me laugh harder. It was a vicious cycle that ended in a lot of apologizing.
"Tic-Tac Cool"
I was in my low teens, maybe 13 or 14, and with my mom in the drive through at taco bell. We had just ordered, and pulled away from the speaker, when mom just.... Rear ends the people in front of us. No real reason other than the fact that mom can't freaking drive worth a crap. Never has been. So there we are, clogging up the line, mom's doing what she's suppose to, and I don't know how much was embarrassment and how much was the ridiculousness and absurdity of it... I MEAN COME ON! REALLY? AT A DAMN SNAIL'S PACE IN THE DRIVE THROUGH, AND ITS NOT LIKE YOU DIDN'T FREAKING SEE THEM!!!!
And mom asks me to look in the glovebox for some paper or other, which I do not find. But I do find a box of tic tac, which for some reason is suddenly hilarious to me, like the icing on the cake, and I cannot stop laughing. I'm certain this pisses mom off to no end, and looking back I feel terrible about it, but I just laughed and laughed, and offered mom a tic tac.
"The Cackler"
This girl in 8th grade used to pick on me like it was her job and she got everyone on my case too. One day, she was rocking back and forth in her chair and leaned too far back. Before she fell backwards, she threw herself forward and ended up hitting herself in the mouth. She lost 3 of her top front teeth, legit swallowed them. Blood everywhere.
I cackled.
"Windshield Art"
waving home alone GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphyMy mom picked me up from school during winter. As I got into the car, she started telling me that my dad had a heart attack. However I began laughing, because someone had drawn a massive penis in the snow on a teacher's windshield.
It was so detailed that it took genuine talent. My mom thought I was crying, I just pointed to the penis and she started laughing as well.
"Signs"
I was in an empty mall and I saw some kid run face first into a sign and basically clotheslined himself and I laughed so loud. It echoed through the whole mall. The mom was pissed but I just couldn't help it.
"PIZZA! PIZZA!"
tobias funke space GIFGiphyI watched a kid from a ski lift that definitely was just learning to ski screaming while bombing a slope and a couple seconds later a man following her yelling "PIZZA! PIZZA!" She ended up running into a fence at the bottom and looked okay when I made it down there so I didn't feel as bad laughing anymore.
"Where is my Camera?"
We were going home from school. One of my classmates fell down the stairs like, well, a log. She didn't bend, put a leg or hands forward, nothing. Imagine one person simply rotating forward and falling down the stairs (there were only 3 so she didn't got hurt). She was lucky that only I and a few friends were around to see it and we are good friends with her so we didn't tell it to anyone else too much. I still wish I filmed it
"Hellbound"
Funeral GIF by memecandyGiphyDuring my grandmother's funeral. The preacher's going on about how we'll see her again in heaven, when my brother leaned over and whispered "but not you."
"Sisterly Love"
I work in healthcare. A few years ago I was meeting with a 60-something year-old patient and their family member - both female - who for whatever reason I assumed was her adult daughter since they looked quite alike. We were wrapping up the appointment and were cracking a few light jokes. Addressing the patient's family member, I said something along the lines of "You must get that from your mother", referring to the patient. The patient cocked her head to one side and firmly stated, "She isn't my daughter, she's my sister." Before I had comprehended the gravity of that statement, I reflexively let out a laugh and smile that insinuated, 'that was a funny joke, you look 30 years older than her!'
They did not smile back. The patient proceeded to explain that the person she brought with her to this appointment was her older sister. However, since this patient did not take care of herself and appeared to be generations older than her healthy older sister, I had made the fatal mistake of assuming it was her adult daughter. Needless to say I didn't exactly bounce back from that one and actually felt quite badly for hurting her feelings.
"Raincoat Required"
A coworker informed me that he'd be picking up more shifts because he accidentally knocked up a woman he didn't even like.
I snorted, then quickly followed with "sorry that's terrible man".
His own fault. If it's going to rain, put on a raincoat kids.
"That's My Girl"
Yes, and I still feel bad. I came into a co-workers office, saw a picture of this little girl, probably 10-ish. Hair messed up, thick glasses, clothes that had zero chances of matching.
I say to him, "WTF is that" Laughing really hard
He answers "It's my daughter"
I'm like a deer in headlights. I thought it was a possible gag, other's had been placing really weird pictures on peoples desks saying it's family, etc. All as practical jokes. This was no joke.
"CRAZY"
crazy nicolas cage GIFGiphyMy friend texted that a kid we went to high school with had died. I think what I meant to reply was "omg that's crazy" and what my phone sent was "hahahalol that's crazy." Upon realizing, I couldn't stop actually laughing.
"Give me a Hand"
I saw a news story about someone walking down the street and found half an arm, hand still attached, on the sidewalk. They picked it up and it was still warm. Contacted police and they said "we've been looking for that!"
Apparently someone was riding in a car with their arm out the window. A random hobo emerges from the brush and cuts off the arm and then throws it somewhere.
Obviously that's not a laughing matter but the sheer randomness of that happening caused me to laugh in surprise.
"I'm a Potty Person"
When I was about 9, my mom found one of my cassette tapes that I used with my tape recorder. It was FULL of potty humor. My mom was SUPER against potty humor.
So, she called me down and my heart SANK when I saw my tape recorder on the table and the look on her face meant I was going to get beat with a belt. I also knew it was coming because she had a belt sitting on the table too.
She told me to sit down and listen to it. And she pressed play. And I had to listen to recordings of me telling stories that were FULL of super creative but gross potty humor stories. Like the worst. While my mom glared at me.
And a few made me start snickering. I couldn't help it. I thought they were just too damn funny, even though I KNEW I was going to get beat worse just for laughing.
"XXXX + 1"
At my great grandmother's funeral, during the eulogy the officiant listed her survivors as "WinifredBarkle and her husband xxxx" this issue being that xxxx was my little brother and we were about 14 and 10 respectively. The whole first row started giggling and people farther back shushed us angrily. It became a running joke that it was official since the pastor said it.
"Finally"
My friend had called me and left a voicemail of my phone. He told me to call ASAP. This was weird because normally he calls me a fool or something on the phone. I end up going to his house since I thought something was wrong. He is sitting there on the chair and his wife was on the couch. He tells me that they are getting a divorce and that they need my help. (I'm an attorney). Well I laugh and say "well it's about time," since I thought he was joking. She ends up busting into tears and had me feeling like an moron.
"God's Connection"
My wife's grandmother died. There we are in church waiting for things to start, and I noticed they had a wifi router up in the rafters. I made a comment about it because I was sort of surprised to see it (been a while since I had been in a church), and my wife's uncle says "hey do you know why catholics hate wifi? They can't stand the thought of an invisible higher power that actually works." So yeah, right then.
"Air Sickness"
Vomit Reaction GIF by moodmanGiphyAll.... the.... time! My go to reaction is to laugh. Pissed off a lot of people that way.
Picked up a friend at the airport and she had gotten sick on the plane and threw up everywhere. When she was telling me about it I laughed instead of commiserated with her. Almost lost a friend that day.
"Freaking Really?"
I was working as a 4K Assistant Teacher and one of my students had a lot of emotional issues. Swearing, kicking, punching, screaming, etc. if something happened he didn't like.
One day we were having snack, and he'd had a really good morning. It was string cheese for snack and we always encourage the kids to do things for themselves so I asked him to open it himself.
He "tried" to open it and after a few seconds he casually tossed it on the table and said in a completely normal tone, "I freaking hate dis."
The casualness of the word "freaking" coming out of a 4yo's mouth was hilarious to me and I laughed but totally shouldn't have.
"Mic Check"
A few years back, my sister was doing a play with her theater group. One of her friends was doing a scene or something (idk what the hell they're called), and in this scene, she was walking to the front of the stage and singing. Well she walked off the stage! About a 4 and a half foot fall. Well my dumb fool started laughing so hard I fell out of my front row seat. Little did I know the the girls headset mic had come off her head and landed right in front of me. So Then the whole damn auditorium could hear me wheezing like I was gonna die. Fun times, no regrets!
"ICED"
I laughed at my husband for falling on an ice rink. It was super funny until he said he thought he broke his arm and his poor arm was just dangling there all gross. I felt bad for laughing after that, but he understood.
toy story swag GIF
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram