Tripping Causes Uncontrollable Fits of Laughter….What Really Is Funny?

In terms of the class focus, I remember one incident in particular that caused the entire class to burst out into fits of uncontrollable laughter. It was the first day of class, an introduction to the course. Professor Williams had just been messing around with the technology, trying to get the course syllabus and other materials to show up on the projector. Professor Williams was walking back to his seat when he tripped over the chair and fell to the floor. Suddenly, the class bursted into laugher. I’m not too sure if this was intentional or unintentional, but it sure got a response from the class. I remember feeling as though I shouldn’t be laughing because he had just fallen to the floor—I remember asking myself, “How would you feel if this happened to you?” But, when I looked around, I noticed that all of my classmates were laughing along with me. It didn’t seem to be mocking laughter or laughter meant to degrade, more of a ‘laughing with you and not at you’ type of response. For me, it was the kind of experience where you start laughing and then can’t stop. Again, I couldn’t help but feel guilty because I was laughing. I noticed that my other classmates seemed to be thinking the same things that I was in that moment: we were all sort of in shock at what had just happened but couldn’t really process it with words, but rather laughter. This may sound a bit unconventional and weird to say, but I feel like the class as a whole was both silenced by and triggered by this event, which caused the laughter. What I mean is that maybe it’s not particularly appropriate to laugh after that moment, but in a way, we couldn’t help ourselves. In terms of how this event relates to materials discussed and learned in class, I relate it to what Comic Relief mentioned in that laughter causes us to lose control sometimes, especially by joking. I also see connections to the Superiority theory as well, which basically says that we laugh in situations where we feel ‘higher’ than others, especially during moments when the object of the laughter is caught in a misfortune. I’m not saying that the class looked down on Professor Williams in this moment, but I’m merely saying that I can see a link between this event and that concept merely because of the way it happened. Professor Williams experienced an embarrassing moment in front of the class, thereby exemplifying the Superiority theory. There’s this element where I knew I shouldn’t be laughing because it was an unfortunate incident (if it was an unintentional fall), but there’s always been this response to laugh when others hurt and/or embarrass themselves. I see this through the various fail videos we’ve watched during our class sessions. Professor Williams didn’t seem hurt and was actually laughing along with us. It’s little moments like these that give insight into some of the course topics and what’s to come.