Types of laughter that make me laugh

Like most people who are, you know, about my age, I've seen Mary Poppins on several occasions. It’s a brilliant show and I'll have to beat you if you disagree (well, not really, as I'm typically against beatings in general, BOCTAOE). At any rate, there is a scene on the DVD in which DVD (Dick VanDyke) talks about how different people laugh and then they end up on the ceiling. No, I’m not sure if that is some kind of symbolism, but I think there is an anti drug message in there somewhere. He mentions the laughing into your hands, gut busting laughs, tittering (good word, tittering. Its story is like a mini comedy, you know? So its one of the few words that just works for what it was built [invented? derived?] to describe. And, believe it or not, it’s also an onomatopoeia. Which sort of explains part of what I wrote in this tangent - I just realized that if you can follow anything at all of what I just wrote, you are, quite frankly, as troubled as I am), hissing, popping, cackling, muffling, snickering, chuckling, et al.

Those are all well and good for, you know, “Mary” and company, but here are the laughs that make me chuckle (yes, you may notice that this word is in the above list, but only because I added it after first writing it here. So, you know… there ya have it):

Inappropriate laughter: On the ‘Simpsons’ the doctor character is a perfect example of this type. I.e., ‘Yes, you have inoperable brain cancer. (hee hee heh)’ I’ve done this before myself. One of the colleges I went too was about 80 miles from my home, consequently, I would drive back home from school fairly often. On one such occasion, as I was driving back to the college, I hit a fairly nasty batch of black ice. (‘black ice’ is the term for ice that you can’t see on the hi-way and not for the hip hop parody of Vanilla Ice, FYI. Though, I must admit, that I haven’t seen a Vanilla Ice parody … most likely due to the fact that the real thing was comical enough) Now, if you’ve never hit a nasty patch of black ice, or even a moderately angry patch of black ice, or, I daresay, I somewhat congenial patch of black ice, I’ll just say it isn’t altogether pleasant…. Or even partly together pleasant, for that matter. I’ll not bore you with the details, but the result of said encounter with black ice was me on the shoulder of the road, looking at a demolished 1976 Pontiac Sunbird (It was a cool car taken from me far too early by the cruel fates) with a trail of destruction behind, including a completely severed and downed street light. All of which, for some reason, struck me as amazingly humorous. In fact, when I called back home to describe for the people there the predicament that I was in, I couldn’t keep from laughing. And I’ll tell you, no one else thought it was the least bit funny and were even, I recall, a little put out by my light heartedness. Go figure.

Uncertain Source laughter: Have you ever spoken with someone who would sort of chuckle after every thing they said? For example, when I was in HS there was this guy who, after every thing he said, would sort of ‘heh, heh’ me and do a weird chicken thing motion with his head and neck. Or maybe it can best be described as a half head bob or something. I found this behavior vastly amusing:

MJ: So, hey, head bobber, what is up? (no, I didn’t really call him that… We laugh at people BEHIND there backs in HS)

MJF: Hi. Heh, heh. (half a head bob chicken motion thingy)

MJ: So, I hear your parents died?

MJF: Yah, it was horrible. They were plucked to death by a flight of angry wild turkeys. Heh, heh. (three-quarter head bob chicken motion thingy)

(I think it’s important to note that the above conversation is completely and totally accurate, as far as I can recall)

While this may seem to be the INAPPROPRIATE laugher guy, it is fact a completely different deal. This guy laughs after every sentence… Like, you know, its punctuation or something, whereas the INAPPROPRIATE laugher just thinks, you know, inappropriate things are funny… The example above may have confused you somewhat.

Uncontrollable Laugher: I sit next to a prime example of this laugher category. Today I overheard the following conversation:

Players:

MG : Manager Guy
CG : Contractor Girl

Conversation:

MG: Nice day out today isn’t it?

CG: Yes, it is. (slight chuckle)

MG: Too bad we can’t be out enjoying it.

CG: Yes, I wore my jeans today, sorry, couldn’t help it. (chuckle)

MG: Yeah, I’m not worried about it.

CG: (Giggle) Yeah, I used to work from home and (guffaw) just work in my pajamas (ha ha ha) but then I got this job (SNORT, snicker)

MG: (Uncomfortable chuckle)

CG: (short burst of loud laughing) I didn’t even want to do ASP (HAHHHAHAHGHAHHHHAH-GAHH GAHH HAH) but it was just going to be for a short period (LAHHHHH HAHHHH AHHHHHH AHHA ARGGHAAHHAHHA).

MG: Little did you know….

CG: (GAAAAAHHHRRRRGLE CAAAACKLE GUFFFAWWW) I had to go (deep breath) (YOOOOOODLE YARRRRGLE CACKLIDIDITY DOO) and buy a new wardrobe (AHHHHHAAAHAHAHHAAHAHAAA).

MG: Uh… (nervous chuckle)

CG: (deep shuddering breath) But, I like it here (small chuckle).

I am dead serious. That is exactly what I heard. Now, this kind of thing usually irritates me to no end, but I discovered that if you don’t really care what the UNCONTROLLABLE laugher is saying, you can really be amused by this sort of thing. I mean, none of what was said was the least bit amusing - even by Chris Rock standards – but this type of laugher has no control over their mirth, as I witness first hand on a nearly daily basis. Can you imagine what it would be like to think that every little thing you say is side splittingly hilarious? I mean, GW doesn’t really count since, you know, I don’t think he knows why people are laughing.