I’m reading A Song of Ice and Fire and at least twice now somebody has burst out in hysterical laughter before being killed. I believe another character started laughing in a horrifying situation, and this also happened once in Breaking Bad, when Walt’s future looked very, very dire. I’m certain I’ve seen this other places, but I can’t recall.
Is this realistic? All I’ve been able to find is stuff on nervous laughter or laughing after being startled. I’m somebody who can laugh inappropriately in stressful or tense situations, but the couple of times I’ve been actually, truly terrified, I can’t even imagine having burst in hysterical laughter, and I’ve never seen somebody laugh when they seem truly terrified (not just startled, stressed, uncomfortable, etc.) But having never seen somebody actually face a violent death, I have very little to go on. Is this a realistic depiction of people facing death or other horrors or just a trope?
I know that when I was a teenager, my reaction to getting yelled at by my parents was often to giggle. This was NOT a way of making fun of them. It was a very difficult to control nervous reaction. Perhaps the laugh you refer to is similar?
Back in my flying days I discovered I have a tendency to do this. Not every time, but yes, I have been known to laugh inappropriately in threatening situations.
I just hope I never have passengers on board when it next happens. So far not.
I was cracking jokes with my friends and the nurses before I went in for surgery to remove a blood clot three days after I got stabbed next to my heart. So yeah, it helps to lighten up a situation in which you have absolutely no control over anyway. I’ve sat with friends with cancer and the black humor can just flow at times.
That one time I got hit by a speeding motorcycle, I spent a good hour (well, it seemed like an hour anyway) in the ambulance both shivering incontrollably and giggling like a schoolgirl, presumably just from the shock - there wasn’t any life-threatening damage, just a split pelvis, couple broken ribs and a scare. The firefighters who were driving me to the hospital didn’t know what the fuck.
I also distincly remember that the question I kept needing reassurance about & asking the rescue crew wasn’t “am I going to heal OK ?” or “is it bad ?” but “where did my other shoe go ?”
This piqued my interest. I’d heard that hysterical laughter could result from psychological shock, so I started there in Wikipedia. Man, that led no where. None of the related entries (Acute stress disorder, or combat stress disorder) made any comment regarding hysterical laughter. However, in ‘nervous laughter’, I found this quote "In A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness, neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran suggests that laughter is used as a defense mechanism used to guard against overwhelming anxiety. Laughter often diminishes the suffering associated with a traumatic event’, which sounds as reasonable as anything.
This is only from personal introspection.
Going from a very sressed state of being to not giving a shit can be enlightening. Mine was either from long periods of stress, my mind said screw it and just stopped caring; or involved in a fight that is hopeless.
The emotional gap was so large and sudden that I believe it is a type of euphoria.
Again, thia is personal introspection…I am not a shrink.
When a large amount of adrenaline is pumped through your system, and then the body starts to try to get rid of it after the immediate danger has passed, I’m told there are pretty much two physical/mental reactions; You either laugh, or you cry.
This is why I don’t get too worked up when Police officers laugh after a tight spot. Sure, if they carry on, they’re being jerks, but I know from my own experience with being 30% adrenaline by weight and then coming down from it and have been accused of ‘not taking it seriously’ or just plain laughing inappropriately.