# Should I forgive inappropriate laughter at old movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035 "2007-08-27T00:43:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/21 "2007-08-28T09:58:09Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] But I gotta confess, I’m a third-grader on the inside - every time the word “gay” comes up in an old movie, as in “You’re looking very gay today, sir!” or “Oh, everything’s all very gay to you, isn’t it?”, hell, I’m howling in the aisles. [/QUOTE] Still remember watching _Great Expectations_ in High School. Ms. Havisham points to Pip’s fancy ruffle/lace laden shirt, “This is very gay…” Took my English teacher a good 10 minutes to restore order. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/22 "2007-08-28T13:40:39Z")
[QUOTE=Cyberhwk] Still remember watching _Great Expectations_ in High School. Ms. Havisham points to Pip’s fancy ruffle/lace laden shirt, “This is very gay…” Took my English teacher a good 10 minutes to restore order. 😛 [/QUOTE] Actually, _Great Expectations_ is precisely what I was thinking of - and I saw it in _college_! Anyway, it was a pretty gay outfit. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/23 "2007-08-28T16:46:07Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Actually, _Great Expectations_ is precisely what I was thinking of - and I saw it in _college_! Anyway, it was a pretty gay outfit. [/QUOTE] TCM just ran the original trailer for “On the Town”, with ends with these words splashed on the screen: “Twice as gay as Anchors Aweigh!!”. I think if I’d seen it in a theater I may have had been overcome with uncontrollable giggles. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/24 "2007-08-28T16:58:58Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] I’m unhappy when people even laugh at _new_ movies at inappropriate times. When we saw _Return of the King_ in the theater for the first time, we sat next to an imbecilic couple who laughed _every single time something unexpected happened on the screen_. They weren’t showing how they were above the silly fantasy movie; it was just their way of reacting to any kind of stimulus. Sam strangling Gollum? ::laughter:: Nazgul shrieking and everyone cowering in fear? ::laughter:: Gondorian soldiers being massacred in the failed sortie? ::laughter:: Pippin finding Merry near death on the battlefield? ::laughter:: They finally got the message when my husband leaned forward in his seat and glared at them fiercely and they cut it out. [/QUOTE] Hey, perhaps that isn’t rudeness on their part. I love a good horror film but my automatic reaction to a good scare of grossness is laughter. It is hard to control and completely reflexive. Besides they are enjoying the film too. Now they are on a board somewhere talking about how these Kiljoys ruined their movie experience by making them feel self conscious and threatening them with fierce glares Besides it could be worse. How about uncontrollable screaming or Farting?? Now that can get annoying! ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/25 "2007-08-28T17:32:42Z")
When my wife and I went to see the rerelease of _The Exorcist_ at the late lamented Coronet Theatre in San Francisco, there was general laughter at the line where the psychiatrist recommends that Regan be started on Ritalin. I have to confess that I laughed at that too. :smack: When we went to see _Akira_, at a certain point towards the end (you’ll know if you’ve ever seen the film), a shaky little voice piped up in the midst of an otherwise silent audience: “Mommy, what happened to his arm?” Okay, I wasn’t exactly laughing at the _movie_ that time… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/26 "2007-08-28T17:45:19Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] Besides it could be worse. How about uncontrollable screaming or Farting?? Now that can get annoying! [/QUOTE] Makes you wonder how people will react to films of the 90s in the future. Like, say…the Jim Carrey film festival. “He can make you laugh with a simple flailing of the limbs.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/27 "2007-08-28T22:50:49Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] Makes you wonder how people will react to films of the 90s in the future. Like, say…the Jim Carrey film festival. “He can make you laugh with a simple flailing of the limbs.” 🙂 [/QUOTE] I trust people will still be supporting the Rolling Stones. Not for their music, but for their tireless efforts to preserve old buildings. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/28 "2007-08-29T01:29:02Z")
[QUOTE=Pazu] When we went to see _Akira_, at a certain point towards the end (you’ll know if you’ve ever seen the film), a shaky little voice piped up in the midst of an otherwise silent audience: “Mommy, what happened to his arm?” Okay, I wasn’t exactly laughing at the _movie_ that time… :eek: [/QUOTE] A little kid at Akira? Boy, that’s really screwed up. There’s an old movie poster in a local deli. It think it’s called Mexicana, but I don’t know for sure which of the three hits on IDMB it might be. Think it’s the [1945](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037909/) movie, because of the tagline listed: “It’s gay! It’s tuneful! It’s terrific!” I think the line on the movie poster is something along the lines of “The gayest musical on [something something] border.” Lots of movie posters, actually, in that deli that are just hilarious. I particularly like “Father Was A Fullback.” Of course, that’s apparently a comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/29 "2007-08-29T02:57:18Z")
[QUOTE=MGibson] I remember a Doper here, from China I think, wrote that he got pissed off when people started laughing during _Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon_ when the wire-fu scenes first started. A lot of people in the audience might not have been exposed to that type of cinema in the past and if you’re unprepared it can look quite silly to American audiences. [/QUOTE] And on the other end, watching _Kill Bill, v.1_ in Japan, there was quite a bit of laughter at all the yakuza/ninja/samurai scenes. Kind of like if an Asian film set a scene in New York City with everyone wearing cowboy hats. Yeah, I’d let it go. It may be inappropriate and kind of rude, but unless it was constant MST3K-style riffing, it’s not that big a deal. ---
**Author:** ![missouri65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@missouri65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missouri65)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/30 "2007-08-29T03:45:36Z")
Funny you should bring this up now. I recently had a similar experience, also with Hitchcock. It absolutely ruined The Birds for me. I thought I was the only one bothered by it. I might have been less so if the audience had been more respectful in general. Earlier in the day, a woman answered her phone during Psycho. I would have understood if they were laughing at the effects (which admittedly don’t hold up on the big screen), but the laughter was at dramatic shots. Not so much the acting, I think, as the camera stopping on a particular person. It seemed contagious. Only a few people laughed the first time, but then more and more joined in. I had really been looking forward to finally seeing it in the theater and I came away feeling cheated. My friend, who had never seen the movie, had an experience completely different from the one I had intended to share. It’s not a big deal, but it is annoying and I wish it wouldn’t happen. I’m glad to know I’m not alone. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/31 "2007-08-29T17:17:15Z")
I think answering your phone in a theater should get you prison time, and the death penalty for the second offense. If you’re so important that you can’t be away from the phone long enough to watch a movie, you just have to sacrifice the filmgoing experience. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/32 "2007-08-30T23:46:15Z")
There were a few inappropriate laughs from the audience when I saw RotK, too. I saw Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” when it was revived in theaters in the 80s pre-VCR. Just before the final battle with Maleficent, one of the fairies gives weapons to the prince and says these are the “sword of truth and the shield of virtue”. THAT got a laugh from one section of the audience. I once went to a small Protestant church for a performance of Brahms’ “Liebeslieder Waltzes” for piano duet and 4-part voices. It wasn’t the symphony, but the performers were very good. Four people (early 20s, IIRC) in the row behind me started giggling and talking, presumably about the music, which is beautiful although admittedly Romantic and kind of schmaltzy. I finally turned around and asked them to be quiet. What was weird about that was that there was a $6-7 admission charge for the performance. Why would they pay to listen to music they think is ridiculous? And why spoil someone else’s enjoyment rather than just leave? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/33 "2007-08-31T01:06:43Z")
I remember watching a movie called, “Pennies From Heaven” way back in HS, when WGN, channel 9 here would play old movies at 10:30 pm. I don’t recall much of the plot, except it involved a plucky young gal who had some hard times. I was about 14 when I saw it. At one point, Our Heroine miscarries. She (in her close up) says to Old Coot who is visiting her, “I felt so bad. I didn’t know what to do. But then-why, I pinched myself real hard on the arm. And now I’m all right.” She had miscarried like 2 days previous. How do you not laugh at stuff like that? That said–I love old movies and can enjoy them for their over the top-ness. But I do still smirk a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035/34 "2007-08-31T01:43:12Z")
I was watching the original Metropolis in a theatre years ago. Yeah, silent film acting is kinda weird and stylized, but it still annoyed me that the idiots behind me kept laughing at it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-forgive-inappropriate-laughter-at-old-movies/417035.md?page=1)