There can’t possibly be only one case you’ve ever wrongly laughed at…
I’m laughing at something I shouldn’t right now.
I work in a refuge that is a “wet house” for injecting drug users, and residents are allowed to be intoxicated on premises. And by intoxicated, I do mean off their faces. All the staff are really cool with this, and we have a philosophy of being non-judgmental around drug use and it’s a great atmosphere. But you do tend to see some pretty extreme situations. It’s not uncommon to have to pull someone’s face out of their cereal as you walk past the breakfast table. I remember one resident who kept maintaining that she was not using anything, despite being so out of it and on the nod that her head was hanging down between her legs. I called her name gently, and she jerked awake shouting “Uh, I’M JUST MEDITATING!”, before hitting her head on the underside of the table. I had to run to the staff room before I pissed myself. Learn that technique of the Buddhist monks, did ya?
I couldn’t help it. I even watched it again.
No…and I don’t know anyone who thought that was funny.
Now if that story had had a happy ending, and the meth-heads had been found, I would imagine the operators involved would have had a few relieved chuckles over how hard it was to get good information out of those two bozos. But as it was…no, not funny at all.
Eh, I laughed at Tubgirl, but not a big laugh out loud, more of an oh-my-god laugh.
And, god forgive me, when Hurricane Katrina hit, it was showing survivors huddled up in a stadium, and outside it showed some poeple having a Jerry Springer style trailer trash knuckle up. I forget what the newscaster said, something like “Tempers are flaring…” ; no shit sherlock. I cried with laughter, then felt really bad.
Oh, well, I didn’t think it was funny either. Just didn’t realize that people doing stuff in trees is a common hallucination, which it apparently is. No offense meant.
On that note, I busted a gut when the Bunkers on All in the Family got a swastika painted on their front door. It was just the opening scene: Archie opens the front door, the audience sees the swastika and howls with laughter, Archie picks up the paper, closes the door, gets a “Huh?” look, opens the door again and the audience screams again. Then later, on the phone to the cops, he describes it as “one a dem Goiman things from Woild War Two.”
I was on the floor, redfaced and gasping, and my mom pitched a fit when she found out what I was laughing at. Later, though, my dad told me that sometimes people laugh when they don’t know what else to do. And at that time (mid-70s, I was watching a rerun) the Holocaust was still a very, very taboo subject in the US. Even at that age, I had a vague sense of what that symbol meant, so it was the shock of seeing it in such a mundane situation that knocked me sideways. Well, that plus the fact that Carroll O’Connor’s comic timing was just that good.
So I can understand why you laughed, because who among us really took in the scope of the tower falling right when it was happening? Especially if you tuned in shortly before it happened and didn’t have time to absorb the image of the towers on fire. An iconic building disintegrating before your eyes. You either laugh or cry, so you laughed.
Ah, I see. Yeah, I wouldn’ t exactly call it common, but I’ve taken a few calls like that. We’ve had the Mexicans in the trees, the deaf kids in the living room, the people wearing wigs in the bathroom, the people having sex on the ceiling, the little doctor with the poison needles, and my personal favorite, the guy that came into the police station and demanded an officer do something about the two tiny little people who had jumped into his car at the stoplight and were hiding under the backseat. Cop went outside, opened the door, and said, “All right, both of you, out of there now!”
Apparently it worked, as the guy thanked him and left.
I like my job.
I laughed at this MySpace page:
Am I going to hell?
I was at the zoo with my sister, my daughter and my niece. My sister was pushing my 5 year old niece in her stroller. There were some tree roots coming up through the sidewalk in one spot and the stroller hit one of them. It tipped downward and my niece, who wasn’t strapped in completely, went flying out and landed on the cement. On her face. I was horrified-I was sure she’d broken her nose or worse. But, she sat right up, unhurt, and said, “Ouch.” My sister and I just lost it. We were laughing so hard we had to sit down on the curb and got some really dirty looks from a group of people nearby who had seen the whole thing.
It was years ago and I still don’t know what we found so funny about it.
If you are, save me a good seat.
One time my cousin and her seven-year-old son were visiting. He was drawn to my treadmill but my cousin and I were busy catching up and not really paying too much attention to him. He managed to get on the treadmill and start it while standing on the belt.
Unfortunately it was set to a pretty high speed, so the following happened: first his feet shot straight back, but he had hold of the rails so he didn’t fall down. He then started flailing his legs, trying to get upright, but that wasn’t working so he really kicked himself into high gear. I swear his legs were making complete circles as he tried to keep up and the whole time he never made a sound, just had this look of sweaty, red desperation on his little face.
Although it may not sound like it, my cousin and I actually reacted immediately and ran over to turn off the machine and grab him simultaneously. We were laughing so hard, though, that it was like moving through water and we couldn’t stop laughing until about ten minutes afterwards. We made him so sad. 
My family caught these one Easter. At the offertory, they brought up extra things to put around the altar because of the special service. One of these was a tray with a lamb cake frosted a lot like this top one. Having never seen such a thing and thinking it very vaguely out of place in church, I caught the giggles. I managed to keep them quiet but the whole pew shook. Even my father who was notoriously proper and stone-faced let out a little snortle (the first and only time I’ve seen that in church) and Mom was shaking on his other side. Luckily it was kind of a boisterous mood all around, and a hymn was being sung, so it didn’t stick out too badly. But it was historic for our family.
I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 yesterday in the theater, and I happened to be sitting right behind a few stairs that led up to the main aisle stairway. The biggest laugh I got during the whole movie was when a little boy came back in from the bathroom. He was walking back to his seat with his head turned to face the screen when he hit the stairs unexpectedly. He sprawled full length out on the stairs. Thank heavens the theater was dark.
At a great uncle’s funeral, I got to witness some Masonic rites. It was all quite fascinating; however, when one of the speakers stated that this great uncle was now in the “Celestial Lodge,” I almost laughed out loud.
I heard a man yell out, “Montana, c’mere Montana,” in a NJ mall. I giggled after I saw a little girl head straight towards him. On second thought anyone naming a baby after a Western state deserves to be laughed out.
I have the same reaction when I hear the baby name Brooklyn.
A few weeks ago, I was doing a presentation for a group of kids about the animal shelter. As part of th epresentation, I list some of the weirder animals we’ve gotten in, including an emu. A little seven-year-old girl piped up: “Last week, I got bit by an emu!”
I burst out laughing at the idea of this huge ornery bird attacking this cute little kid. Fortunately, she had a sense of humor about it: apparently, her dad laughed, too.
Daniel
I probably watched it five or six times, and didn’t stop giggling for a week. The whole thing was hillarious, the editing was great, but really the soundtrack is what did it for me.
I have exhausted my Google-fu and cannot find anything that sounds like the story you might be describing. What happened?
PS: I, for one, am begging you to tell this story… or at least email it to me
Dead Baby Jokes.