Not that I know if it’s a syndrome or condition at all in psychological terms but this thing has plagued me since I was young. I first became aware of just how troublesome this could be when I joined the Army at 17. Now anyone who’s served in the armed forces know just how funny drill sergeants can be. These guys are the greatest comedians in the world. Our sergeant was no exception. When we were on the drill ground and someone goofed he would rip the guy apart with some of the most hilarious insults I have ever heard. Trouble was of course you dare not laugh at them. If you couldn’t hold it back (and I couldn’t) he would zero in on you, with even funnier insults which made you laugh even harder. I still believe the bastards tried to make you laugh on purpose so they could jump on you!
I got in so much damn trouble this way. It got so that even if the guy wasn’t making jokes I couldn’t look at him without thinking of the past ones he’d told and I’d feel the urge to laugh swelling up inside me with more and more force. I’d try to bite my tongue hard, anything to cause enough momentary pain to distract me. Sometimes it worked, mostly it didn’t. In the end the sergeant didn’t have to be there and I didn’t even have to think of his wisecracks. When I was on parade or up before the CO or anywhere where it was inappropriate the insane impulse to laugh would be there. All I had to do was think, Gee, wouldn’t it be terrible if I laughed now. That was enough. Before I knew I’d be in an intense struggle once again with the demon laughter.
When it came time to graduate training I had to write and tell my parents not to come to the passing-out parade as I wouldn’t be in it. I think I said I’d been excused as I was down with a bug but the truth is that this big parade where we would be inspected by some major-general and other assorted brasshats terrified me and I took the opportunity when we were told there was an odd number for the parade to instantly volunteer not to attend it.
When I left the forces I thought things might improve. No more parades, etc. But of course there are still many occasions in civilian life where laughter is a nono, funerals, weddings and other things. I found myself trying to avoid them and even during my own wedding I had to resist the urge to break out into giggles. I’m still thrall to this curse and I guess I always will be.
Some of my friends tell me it’s just nerves and I just have to get a grip. I just wondered if there were a specific name for this and whether any other Dopers had suffered badly from it. I’m not talking here about the fits of giggles we all have as kids but something which persists through adult life. Perhaps I’ll have to stump up for a psychoanalyst to get to the bottom of this and I’ll discover that I wanted to rape my mother and murder my father as a young boy.
I have the exact same problem, that’s why I thought basic training was so great because its just a litany of drill sergeants making fun of people, I didn’t care if I got smoked, I laughed anyway. Now I’m going to school for a job in the medical field and sometimes its hard for me to resist laughing at certain things in clinical, but I can do it as long as someone else doesn’t start laughing. I think sometimes I freak out my classmates when I appear to be laughing at nothing, but I’m actually remembering some old incident or joke and can’t stop laughing. I think its just the way my brain functions when its bored.
My whole life, man. Fortunately, it never came out in boot camp. I was able to zone out appropriately when the opportunities for inappropriate reactions arose. Except for once, and I’m still embarrassed for it, but I’ll share. We had our “Hell Night” (basically, under sleep deprivation, march around the base and get tested on everything you’ve ever done in boot camp, over 16 hrs or so). I was cadence caller for the home stretch…say 2 AM till 6 AM. I was so exhausted and delirious that I started forgetting the Navy marching cadences and lapsed into the ones from “Full Metal Jacket.” Yep, the filthy ones. I didn’t get reprimanded, but got some seriously WTF looks from the Sr. Chief marching around with us. After almost 30 years, still cringing.
Oh, I also have the tendency to have weird reactions at concerts/festivals. I don’t even have to like the music. Some passages will bring me to tears, even if it’s kids attempting Mariah Carey wailings (which I despise). Other stuff, if I really like it but I’m up front and its loud and overwhelming, has put me to sleep. I shit you not. Yes, I have narcoleptic tendencies.
In other words, there are neurological short circuits–they’re a thing–it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are broken or sociopathic. But if you want to get a little hypchondriacal about it, do some reading on pseudobulbar affect.
I don’t personally suffer from this issue you’ve described, however, I observe something quite similar in neuro patients I work with daily - we refer to it as “emotional lability” in the field. Fairly common in the aftermath of a stroke or brain injury and is associated with ADHD as well.
Yeah, pseudobulbar affect is a whole 'nother ballgame (although it’s what I was expecting when I clicked on the thread.) I’ve got one poor fella on my patient load who has it, and most days it’s a real struggle to even take his blood pressure as he’s laughing hysterically over the latest case of rape or murder he heard about on the news. It’s seriously disturbing, to both of us, and goes way beyond laughing over the priest farting in church.
It’s been a long time, but when I was in grade school, I went through a period of getting in trouble because I couldn’t help but laugh at the antics of class clowns and random foulups (e.g., the teacher once put a filmstrip into the projector upside down).
It was sort of contagious - several of us had this problem, which seemed to make it worse for all of us.
I’ve since concluded that the teachers just had sticks up their asses. I remember my mother’s bemused reaction to the note informing her that I was being punished for “giggling in line”.
I met a woman who laughs uncontrollably when under stress.
What happened was she insulted me (accidentally/unintentionally, it turned out). When I addressed with her the fact that I was insulted by what she had said, she began to laugh. I then escalated to telling her to get the fuck out.
She began crying. Then she explained that the original insult was unintended, and the laughter is something she cannot control whenever she is emotionally stressed. She apologized, I apologized back, and we started over.
Yeah, stress does bring this on for me. I was in one of those group therapy sessions once, the kind where they want you to let all your anger and frustration out, and sitting right next to me was a huge biker type who seemed to be permanently angry anyway. He started talking and minute by minute as he bared his soul and let it all out the atmosphere in the room became more and more intense and I wished more and more that I could be instantly whisked away from the place. Because I knew what was coming and no force on earth could prevent it. I burst out into an insane fit of giggles. He might have been talking about his poor old mother dying for all I knew, I’d stopped listening some time ago as I’d tried to fight for control. I’ve never seen a guy so furious as he turned towards me. If I hadn’t managed to quickly convince him that this was a long-standing thing with me I swear I would have been a dead man.
Needless to say that’s the last time I tried group therapy.
I got into all sorts of trouble during boot camp owing to this quirk. D.I’s are often quite funny (e.g. recruit is lined up next to me during the nightly hygiene inspection. DI notices he’s got his boxer underwear on backwards with the fly in the rear. DI screams “Are you expecting company tonight?”) But yeah, I frequently find myself fighting the urge to laugh during: church services, funerals, weddings, business meetings, and other moments where some measure of solemnity is usually called for.
After almost 30 years, still cringing.