Thursday, May 21, 2009

Inappropriate Laughter

I believe there is a technical term for a phsychological condition where people respond inappropriately to their circumstances. For example they laugh when they should be crying and visa-versa. I think I may have experienced it last night when we were watching American Idol and this ad came on



Aidan siad "there were are" at the first disaster scene, which made me laugh followed by tears. I realized they were not the tears of joy that often accompany a good belly laugh. But they weren't tears of saddness really either. I guess they were more the tears you see when the reality of the severity of a circumstance actually sets in. Those people weren't like us, they were in the middle of a disaster - oh wait, so are we, and it really shouldn't be funny.

I wondered if someon had walked into the room at that moment and seen us all laughing together on the sofa, me with tears in my eyes, would they have noticed something different, maybe an akwardness.......or would it have sounded like an honest laugh? I guess it doesn't really matter, at least we were laughing, inappropriate as it may have been.

2 comments:

  1. I thought the same thing when I saw it last night. You should send out your story on the web. That type of stuff spreads fast. Maybe they'll be more inclined to "be there" if they're worried about getting bad press.

    Sorry.

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  2. I'll be there for you! And if it makes you feel better, I laughed, too. But only after I read your post and watched the video. I imagined you all sitting on your couch laughing and crying at the same time and it made me smile (and giggle a little).

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