Sexism? Would men have done this?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Some years back, when I was a paralegal, I worked for a very smart and dedicated senior partner.

One day, we were working late because she was waiting for an important phone call. Since you don’t get to be a senior partner by sitting around twiddling your thumbs while waiting, she decided it was a good time to reorganize some files in her office. So we were doing that, all professional like, and eventually, in due time, the phone rang. This was the important call.

Except she was blocked from her phone by the pile of files, and I was on the other side of her desk.

She took a step toward the phone, lost her balance, and saved herself by grabbing her chair. I leaned over the desk to grab the phone and it was just out of my reach. Then my foot slipped on a file folder. I ended up sprawled across her desk–but I had the receiver. (The rest of the phone was on the floor, kind of dangling by the cord.)

Unfortunately I also kind of had the wind knocked out of me so instead of answering the phone the proper way I was saying, “Huh…huh…huh…” And then I started laughing. And she started laughing. Meanwhile gesticulating that she wanted me to answer the phone, like, NOW. I gritted my teeth and got out the greeting, and yes, it was The Important Call. The caller asked if she was available, I choked out, “Let me transfer you,” put the call on hold…and my boss and I laughed ourselves senseless for a good minute and a half. We were CRYING. Then she pulled herself together and took the call and I started picked up the files. Occasionally snorting, but basically over it. Then she got off the call and started laughing again.

Fortunately, there was no one else in the office.

Okay, would MEN have done this? I don’t think so. But feel free to enlighten me!

2

Laugh themselves sick and sit there, reduced to helpless wheezing and pointing fingers at one another over a mutual pratfall or random bit of absurdity? Become trapped in a cycle in which simply looking at one another triggers another round of laughter? Struggle to communicate through erratic gestures because they can’t keep wind in their lungs long enough to actually speak?

You have no idea. I’ve reduced a gathering of men to such a state by talking about a sock. The scene you describe would be comedy gold for a lot of guys, and they might well laugh over it for years, and make a running gag out of asking each other to answer the phone.

Obviously, that doesn’t mean every guy would react that way, any more every woman would. Some would be too embarrassed by the pratfall to laugh about it, or angry that someone had witnessed the incident.

3

My dad does. My ex-husband and more than a few former boyfriends do. What Balance describes has to be in the top three of awesome things about being alive. Been there, done that, LOVE when it happens.

4

I’ve seen a coworker make the boss unable to answer the phone by humming snatches of an old TV show’s theme (both male). That same TV show whose most famous chapter can be recited line by line by an enormous amount of Spaniards of my generation (Verano Azul). The phrase “Chanquete is dead!” said in the most ham-fisted possible way can reduce a group who’s had a “let’s remember when Chanquete died” session to tears of laughter instantly. I’m talking fists banging on desks, attempts to muffle laughter against the keyboard, a rolling chair that suddenly shoots backwards across the room prompting even more laughter…

So far it’s always been guys, women will remember Verano Azul but won’t be the ones saying, one day over lunch, “oh man, remember Verano Azul?” and starting that “reproduce the chapter where Chanquete died” session.

5

I have video proof that guys do this too. (We had to do about 20 takes of that scene. All of 10 seconds long and they could not. get. through it.)

6

See your boss lean back too far in his seat and he goes ass over tea kettle all over the office, papers flying up, everything on the table is tossed… And you on a conference call. The crash, the laughter… Someone was smart enough to hit the mute on the phone before the real laughing started. Then we got to listen to “is everything alright?” and “what happened?”. We got back to the call but everyone in the room was trying not to laugh. And the harder you try not to laugh, the louder the laughing gets, especially when people are feeding off each other.

And forget about it if someone rips the inadvertent fart, where it is heard on your side of the phone and not on the other. Thank god for the mute button. Guys can turn into little kids in those situations… To the point of trying to make the other one laugh when they are talking on the phone to the big client or to the boss.

Sometimes, laughing is uncontrollable. and that’s a good thing, for the most part.

7

How about when your child, about 6 or 7 yrs old, does something to his sibling that deserves a reprimand but what they did was also funny? I don’t have a specific example right now but I do remember trying to mildly scold my son (he’s now 28) but also stifling my laughter - I lost all serious composure at that moment, and my son didn’t know whether to be contrite or to laugh with me.

Sometimes kids do the darndest thing.

8

Oh god I hate that.

This was back when my son was like three or four. I got up late one night to get a drink of water. As I’m walking down the hallway, I can hear my son fumbling around in the fridge. He heard me coming and slams the fridge door shut so I wouldn’t see what he was up to.

When I got to the kitchen and turned the light on, I about lost it. Stifling my laughter I sad ‘Jr, have you been that whip cream?’ With a deer in the headlights look on his face he slowly shakes his head from side to side. The only thing was though, the incriminating evidence was all over his face. And it wasn’t just a little smattering either. It was ALL OVER HIS FACE. Almost as if he did a face plant inside a pie.

I should have scolded him. But really, how could I?
I’m curious why the OP thinks there’s a gender divide on this.

9

Well, that’s why I asked. I know more than one woman who has reported a laughing fit. I guess the men I know just don’t talk about this.

10

I worked for years in a cash office in Wallyworld. One time I pushed my chair back and it tumped over. (I was VERY HEAVY in those days as well- nothing funnier than a fat woman falling, trust me)

I was laughing hard. I couldn’t even try to get up. I’m still in the chair, laughing. The other women were laughing hysterically. One man was in there, the security guy. HeH checks to see if I’m ok and then checks the time and runs back to his office.

To make a copy of the video. (All video back in the day.) Which became his favorite thing to show people he was training.
You will not believe how many people I met that said “oh man/girl/chick/dude! You’re the one that falls in her chair and lies there laughing!”

I am a woman, but you know, people say odd things.