Exactly so. It’s not impossible to hold two mutually contradicting emotions, like humor and concern. The guy falling is funny. Him being in pain is also a case for concern.
In fact, I don’t entirely care for some of the more cruel Three Stooges movies, myself, but looking at humor from a structural analysis sort of perspective, this is what you get. At a second remove, in a movie or as a joke, the need for concern is removed, leaving only the humor.
Last night I was watching America’s Funniest Home Videos because I had about 10 minutes till my movie to start. There was a gymnastics part when people were doing their little flips and they were in nationals and major cotests and on nation T.V and sometimes the people fell off the balance beam or cracked their spine or their eyes were gorged out while everyone in the audience was laughing hysterically.
You are very right and I see nothing funny about that. That infuriates me just reading your post. Causing another person to feel humiliated is cruel and not funny.
I am talking about accidental falls that don’t result in serious injury. I can’t help laughing my ass off. I really can’t. I try really hard not to, but I do.
For me it depends on the situation: fiction vs. real life, tripping while walking down the street vs. down the aisle on your wedding day, really injured vs. just startled, how the person reacts, how well I know the person, etc.
I laughed in college when some guy across the street were obviously doing their macho strut, oblivious to the icy sidewalk, and then went ass over teakettle. (They did get up and go on their merry way, so probably not hurt too badly.)
I didn’t laugh when Mr. S tripped on the last step coming down the stairs in the dark and landed on the hallway floor, quivering from the pain, and nude (we sleep in the buff), with the dog sniffing him in concern. We laughed about it the next day, though, because the situation was just so absurd, even though he did get an air splint and had to use a cane for a few days.
I don’t generally laugh at the misfortunes of real-life, innocent strangers.
That said, it still upsets me when I see (or even think of) the poor pastry chef from Sesame Street with his beautifully decorated tray of goodies, cake, whatever, smeared all over him and the floor after he trips and falls down the stairs. When I was a little kid it nearly made me cry for him.
Well, so one might think. I’ve seen many a situation wherein people just kept on laughing.
I distinctly remember then time, back in high school, when I tripped and fell down an entire flight of stairs. It was a LOOOOONG fall, and I fell hard. The students who witnessed this event burst into uproarious laughter, and not one person came forward and asked if I was all right. (FTR, I was banged up, but I did manage to escape serious injury.)
“But those were high school students!” some might say. “They can’t possibly know any better!” Bull. Even a teenager should have a modicum of sensitivity and empathy. Besides, I thin it’s clear that many adults react the same way – as evidenced, in fact, by some of the responses here.
Just to illustrate my inability to not laugh at stuff like this, I read this paragraph and laughed my ass off! Naked? Quivering? Dog sniffing? Holy cow! :::giggle:::