BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times

Subject: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:27 PM

Okay......We've all done it haven't we? Let me tell you my latest "Fo Spaw."

No secret that I had a disastrous trip over Christmas where my mother-in-law was a complete pain in the ass. We have never really gotten along and this trip ended the relationship pretty well for good. Some of it was my fault and some of it was my fault unintentionally....like laughing at the wrong time. But let me explain..........

Clarence (my mother-in-law) was telling a story about her grandmother, a story Karen knew well. Now if I were to tell the story it would go like this: Elmer was her oldest child and when he got rheumatic fever it literally destroyed his heart and he was always a very sick child. He lived to 18 because Grandma took great care of him, tending to his every need. She had come from a pretty refined family but took to the life of a frontier woman readily and they lived a very hard scrabble existence in South Dakota. In Elmer's last days she managed all of her chores and yet stayed almost constantly by his side and he died in her arms.

Now folks, that kind of story evokes some sincere emotion and perhaps even a tear or two....BUT....When Clarence told it one evening she was 3 sheets in the wind and rambling. When she finally got to the end (the part about dying in her arms), instead of saying what I did, she said: She gave him an enema and he died in her arms...then she went out and milked the cows...............I busted a gut laughing!

Okay, maybe I was wrong to laugh, but ferchrissakes..........Makes me think twice about wanting an enema I tell ya'!!! It's the "Enema of Death" available today at your local Rexall Pharmacy! And what the hell did the friggin' cows have to do with it? I mean, I know what she meant...the chores had to be done and she did her best to care for Elmer, but an enema, a death, and a cow milking, in one sentence had me in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. I tried to apologize and explain it to her, but frankly, I couldn't stop laughing.................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: MMario
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:31 PM

I suspect I would have been laughing as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: GUEST,MTed,sans cookie
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:43 PM

You've got my vote, SPAW, I would have been rolling on the floor, and my laugh, in situations like this is a particularly loud and penetrating one--from my point of view though, a really good laugh is worth whatever it costs!!

There is an old saying that the difference between comedy and tragedy is time, though, and, given that this was the death that took place long before she was born, the only unforgivable thing may be that she has been "milking" this story for tears all these years, and leaving the punch line out!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:43 PM

Is it possible you were a few sheets to the wind as well?

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:45 PM

Is that like, Mama cried the night the hogs ate Willie?

Personally, I don't think that qualifies as an inappropriate time. If someone tells a story when they're drunk, what do they expect?!

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:48 PM

You're a strange one 'Spaw. You have a great literary talent, (this post) for example.

Yet you choose to waste it by laughing about farting, and moaning about your mother in law

I guess 'enigma' would be the word

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:53 PM

I was out for a walk in the woods with my parents, and the vexed question of where to stand in a storm came up.

Mum was very serious about it, and told us "my granny sheltered under a tree you know, and the tree was struck by lightening and it fell down" (cue slight smirks) "- and she was a cripple."
(cue horrified gasps, embarrassment at having smirked, and extravagant expressions of sympathy).

then.....

"No - it wasn't the tree - the tree didn't hit her - she just was a cripple - had been all her life"

(cue rolling around in the undergrowth in uncontrollable mirth)

Mum couldn't see why it was so funny.....



Kris

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:58 PM

Spaw, I fell apart just reading it. I find hard to imagine anyone so humorless that they could have maintained a striaght face through that strange sentence.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: GUEST,emily b
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 05:27 PM

I have a terrible habit of laughing at what in Hollywood would be called slapstick but in reality what are really accidents. Like when someone falls off the porch or out of their chair. Or into the mud. Things like that. Once I get going I can't stop. Even while lending a helping hand and expressing concern.

Spaw, I can't say I blame you for laughter in this case.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Cluin
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 05:37 PM

You people are all SICK!

...but funny

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 07:44 PM

Glad I wasn't alone in finding laughter in this..........It also just occured to me that about 4 years ago or more, we had some fun here with a few contests. Helen from Oz started it I believe and the idea was to use three seemingly unrelated things in a short paragraph, a song, or a poem. The first one I recall was a flea, an orange, and a bicycle seat. Now if someone had suggested cow milking, death, and an enema, it would have been a worthy challenge!!! To get them all in one sentence would have been an accomplishment, but then again, the stories had to make sense so my mother-in-law's version would have been disqualified.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Allan C.
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 08:03 PM

My father's funeral was on a cold, blustery January day. We were gathering at graveside for the final services. Chairs had been set out under a tent to seat family and other mourners. Mom was shivering despite her thick, full-length coat. She held my arm as I ushered her toward a seat. Then, in my most reassuring voice, I said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll sit beside you and break wind."

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 09:01 PM

I have a newspaper clipping that I have saved for thirty years, (one of those tiny fillers that papers use to use dead space at the bottom of a column)....it says, in its entirety:

Calcutta, India, JulyXX...
   "An elephant hauling logs on the Nangaparbatam River went wild yesterday and trampled a man to death. Then it returned to its work."

-----Oh, great!glad to hear the elephant is ok and keeping busy ..and the man? his family? what did he do to the elephant?

I swear I laughed until I hurt...then I took that newspaper and drove around to friends houses showing THEM the article and asking if THEY dodn't want to laugh, too. A few chuckled.

So, 'spaw, I would have laughed right along with you, as that sort of jaw-dropping relational juxtipositioning of incongruous elements totally flummoxes me.

Let's you & me get some booze and take her on tour. I'm SURE paying audiences would ease the sting of being laughed at....;>))

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Banjer
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 09:06 PM

'Spaw, I'm beginning to understand how your plans got waylaid.

I can sympathize with you though. My mother will often times start to tell a story about someone and having that German accent, coupled with a strange pattern of grammar she oftenstarts me to giggling at the most serious of stories. (Serious to her, anyway!)

I believe if I had heard that story I would have been rolling on the floor laughing and crying from the pain in my side!

The meaning I would have taken from the sequence of events would have been she gave the enema, saw it was for naught because the poor lad died and she figured the hell with I'll go milk the cows instead!

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 09:24 PM

And we have some winners!!!!! Good stories gang.....all gave me a laugh! And Bill, I'm trying to commit that phrase to memory...."jaw-dropping relational juxtapositioning of incongruous elements"....that's it exactly!

Allan's story of the funeral is a good one too, and so often we find no humor in them at all. Many times I think the deceased would actually enjoy the laughter if they were there. My best friend Denny ask me to speak at his funeral about a year before he died and I said that I might not be a good choice since I'd probably tell stories on him. He replied that he could think of nothing he'd like more and no one better to do it. I'm proud to say that for about 15 minutes (after they got over the shock of what I was doing) that I had a great audience laughing at some of the stupid things we'd done.

When I was teaching, we had a party at our house and a lot of teachers sitting around telling bad and irritating things that had happened that week. Karen (one of the few non-teachers present) works as a histologist (they dissect human tissue and mount it on slides for pathologists to diagnose) all of a sudden said, "We had a four pound uterus today." Another case of Bill's relational juxtapositioning that simply broke everyone up including Karen.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 09:47 PM

Spaw:

I'd have been out on my ear if I were in her parlor when she told that story!! Maybe it's a guy thing, but anyway, you're not alone.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 10:58 PM

My Mom met the mailman as he came up our steps and took the mail. He asked "Do you know the Bakers on 99th Street?" Apparently, he needed the exact house number. She replied "Oh yeah. Schneibergs". He looked befuddled, shook his head in wonder, and walked away. I nearly wet my pants in hysterics. Schneibergs owned the local bakery. I had to explain the whole thing to Mom.

I have had frequent giggling fits on public transportation which usually landed me a seat if not a car all by myself. There seams to be a point of no return. Cross the line and there is no hope to stop the laughing.

My most recent and probably most embarrassing was a fit of giggles brought on in the middle of a concert by a strange man turning around, ogling my breasts and scratching his butt by way of a hand down the neck of his shirt. My nephew escorted me out with tears running down my face. He swore that everyone thought I was crying but he was just trying to be nice. I emailed the organizer to apologize but she didn't respond. The fact that it was in an echoing church didn't help. I have been grateful ever since for Bill Staines' professionalism. Or maybe he thought I was crying.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 11:14 PM

My great grandmother passed away at the age of 98. About a week after I'd heard the Ole & Lena joke with the punchline "If this bus breaks down one more time the f---ing season will be over." As I was sitting in church (my older relatives are fairly fundamentalist) that line kept creeping forth, unbidden.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 11:37 PM

Oh Lordy lordy Spaw. I've been doin' that kind of thing for so long, there must be an army out there just waitin' to give ME an enema! My third ex-wife said that I had the 'social-skills' of a turnip! As Mudcatters well know, I can also be charming, self-effacing, self-deprecating, and just gol'darn nicey-nice most of the time.....but occasionally.....well

...suffice it to say, I carried the 'fart-machine' around with me during the holidays.

It certainly gives you a chance to see which of your friends and relatives have well-defined senses of humour.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Big Mick
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 12:14 AM

I have not flooded my sinuses with liquid while cruising the Mudcat threads in a very long time. It is only fitting that Spaw would be the one to break the drought. I am still fecking laughing..........Clarence would hate me for sure..............keeeerriiiiccccceeeedd but that is funny..........ROFLMAO

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: JennyO
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 03:13 AM

No, it isn't a guy thing, I assure you. Many's the time I have been hit with inappropriate laughter at the worst time, when something struck me funny - particularly embarrassing in concerts and sessions. It's just human nature - sometimes it pops up when things are particularly serious or emotional and something in you needs to relieve the tension, and sometimes it's just something incongruous, as in Spaw's story. I'm afraid I'd have been rolling around, too.

A couple of years ago, my girlfriend's mother died, and we had just been to her funeral. That night we went to The Loaded Dog (top Sydney folk club) and the band there chose to sing "Isn't it grand boys" (of course they were totally unaware of her circumstances). I looked at Sue to see how she was reacting, expecting it might upset her, and she was cracking up laughing, even singing along -

"Look at the coffin, with silver handles
Isn't it grand boys, to be bloody well dead?
Let's not have a sniffle, let's have a bloody good cry
And always remember, the longer you live
The sooner you'll bloody well die." (other verses in the digi trad)

That relieved the tension, she felt better, and it made a bloody good story to tell afterwards. Never be ashamed to laugh - it's saved me lots of times when life was a bit grim. Laughter makes the world go round!

LAUGH ON SPAW - YOU'VE MADE MY DAY!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 07:28 AM

I met an old friend of my father's at a funeral parlour while paying my respects to his cousin who was laid out in one of the rooms. He asked, "How is your father these days ?", knowing that Dad had a bad bout with cancer. I responded, "The worst is over... he's in the next room." At which point, the old gent started toward the next room, saying, "I must have a chat with him." He was in the room before I could think of what to do or to say. I felt so sorry for him as my father was the guest of honour in the next room, but my brother and I could only hear Dad roaring with laughter from on high - it was just the kind of thing that would have struck Dad funny. We had to leave the parlour for at least five minutes. I suppose we looked rather odd, just outside the front door of a funeral parlour, laughing uncontrolably.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 08:02 AM

Mike Egan was my best friend during school and I loved his family....still do. As an only child I loved to hang out at his house where there were 7 kids....Michael, Kathleen, Maureen, Terrence, Patrick, Colleen, and Sheila Eileen. Yes, Irish catholic obviously. His dad, Charlie, said he'd have claimed me on his taxes except he already had one Patrick. Charlie was one of the funniest men I have ever known and when it came to wakes/funerals, Charlie was the guy to have on hand. I will never forget one funeral where a particularly glum bunch of people were standing apart. Charlie walked over and then offered his hand saying, "My name's Spalding...Played with my balls haven't you?" Within 5 minutes the entire group was telling humorous stories of the deceased.

When Charlie died I walked into the room where he was and went up to his wife Millie first gave her a hug. She said, "Pat, he really looks good doesn't he? Of course he should since he just got out of the hospital. Now you know that I wouldn't say that, but Charlie would if he were here." And frankly, Charlie was there. Karen and I spent the next several hours with the Egan clan sharing stories of Charlie and our childhoods, and for most of that time it was very hard not to feel Charlie's presence in the laughter. He left a great gift to his family and to many others as well, myself included.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 08:24 AM

Spaw, you should have had LtS there. Once Liz starts her famous laugh (or squeak) she completely upstages everyone else for about 2 miles - no-one would notice any lack of reverence from you.

Incidently - you are sure that it was only laughter which upset Clarence - hilarity can also relax the anal sphincter - and you seem to have become a legend in your own flatulence !

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 09:52 AM

I'm sure most families do it, but I was raised with "Call when you get there." So, we are at my mom's funeral, the preacher is preaching, and the phone rings...........guess what we put on her tombstone? Yup, "Call When You Get There"........

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Hollowfox
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 11:31 AM

Well, 'Spaw, I'm of two minds on this. Not wanting to make Karen's life any harder than it has to be, I probably would have been on the lookout to make sure I just lived through the visit without screwing it up. God willing, I would have kept a straight face until I got into the car, or something. (Thus sayeth the *Mom*).
On the other hand, I've gotten dope slapped for laughing at funerals (the service always said to be not sad and be comforted, right? And the way Aunt Marjorie's nose tip kept twitching away from her lip when you watched her talk in full profile...). And my mother quietly chewed me out for those giggles during my first communion. She should just be glad I didn't yell "Icch" when I got my first taste of wine. It was a lousy cheap burgundy.. kisses sweeter than wine, my ass.
I hope Karen and the kids survived this all right? Love, the MomFox

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 11:45 AM

Rick, I suppose it's safe to tell you now.
I had that fart machine planted in a chair at one point, hoping you'd sit there. Didn't work out. The rubber cockroach didn't work very well and I suppose I should have tossed it into the stuffing or tied some tiny rocks around its neck and sunk it in the gravy.

I tend to get in certain moods during movies and sad or extremely passionate songs sometimes. I seem to recall losing it completely during some song at a session done by a singer who was emoting enough for a whole boxed set of recordings. By the end, I had my hand over my mouth and was hiding behind my hair. Couldn't stop the shaking though, and I'm sure at least a couple people thought I was sobbing uncontrollably.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 12:56 PM

Ya know, with all respect to those who mourn, one of the reasons I love you guys is that you can tell stories like this!! Living life well sometimes requires a healthy disrespect for death, loss, and pain -- ya gotta be a bigger sumuvabitch than life is, or you go down whining. As long as I can, I intend to play with those who are such sumuvbitches and enjoy the hell out of it! Thanks, Spaldings all, for showing your balls to the world!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:03 PM

Hollowfox, as someone who has had to endure the battles between my husband and my mother for 17 years, I can tell you the effects are not pleasant, nor even mildly amusing to me. But I guess I can be thankful for one thing--my husband never threatened to turn the children against my mother, and prevent them from seeing their grandmother.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Pseudolus
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:06 PM

I love my family. I mentioned in another thread that my Dad passed away on the 21st. Tough time for us but that's another thread. Anyway, when I was growing up my Dad was famous for coming home at night, taking his pants off, hanging them on the back of the chair and sitting around in his underear all night. So there we are at the funeral home and we walk in to see Dad for the first time. Naturally there were tears and hugs for a few minutes and when everything went quiet I said, "Wait a minute, this is all wrong". Everyone stopped what they were doing and then I said, "Shouldn't he be laying there in his underwear with his pants hanging on the hood of the casket?" Everyone laughed, thank God, and the afternoon and evening seemed to be a bit lighter from then on, stories about Dad etc. I want people to laugh after I'm gone. Someone saying "He made the world a happier place" through streaming tears just seems wrong!


Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Kim C
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:10 PM

His underear?

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Hollowfox
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:15 PM

Yes, guest, I've been there as well. That's another story though, and luckily neither my xhusband nor I did anything to alienate our kids against any relatives on either side of the family, including each other. I guess we just both dodged a big bullet on that one, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Pseudolus
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:23 PM

oops...underwear.....   :)

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:31 PM

Absolutely Hollowfox. I also consider us lucky, in that all parties in our family have bent over backwards to keep from involving the kids.

My mother is having a much harder time in life than my husband now, so last year, I finally just told him to shut his trap and find someone else to bitch to about my mother. I also left him home, while the kids & I went and enjoyed the holidays with my family. I had more fun with my family than I had in years. Things really can change for the better in our families, once we decide that is the direction we want our relationships to go. I'm still dumbfounded at myself for putting up with the abuse for all these years from both of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:56 PM

Let me head this one off just a bit. Clarence and I have never gotten along well but we have tried (both of us) to keep it more than just "civil." Karen has always been in the middle, but she was in the middle as a kid when Clarence always had a fight going on with another member of the family. Yes, Karen and I fought about it but we both came out on the plus end. Her Mom just got worse.   The harder I tried, the worse she got.

AND, I am not nor would ever turn our kids against her. She has done that herself in Michael's case and poor Tris just tries so hard and she has no understanding of him at all. Autism has many forms and though we have tried to explain Tris to her, she never seems to get it.

Clarence had an equally disastrous trip with another daughter a few months ago and the middle daughter who lives close to her (and fed and boarded her for two years) sets very precise limits on what and when Clarence can interact with her family. None of the son-in-laws get along with her at all. Karolyn, the middle, told us before the trip not to go and just to come to her house instead so the kids could all play together. Probably the most fun our kids had on the trip was the one night we spent in Atlanta with the their cousins. After we lefther house, her kids were mad at her and asked why she made us leave and our kids wanted to know why we had to leave. Airline reservations mean very little to kids!

In some ways it was a good trip....we swam in the ocean on Christmas Eve, we fed the gulls, went to a great zoo, visited a tremendous bird sanctuary.......but the relations between us were always tense and we'd have had a far better time without her.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:56 PM

My husband and I were having dinner in an outdoor cafe with Mark, an old friend of his who is a psychologist. While we were eating, a guy came up and said hello to Mark. Mark said, "Oh, hi, the blue jeans fit fine." The guy looked a little puzzled and went off to sit at a table nearby.

A few minutes later, Mark suddenly went into a fit of giggles, explaining that he had thought the guy was the salesman who had sold him a pair of jeans earlier in the day, and he had been worried about the fit. He had just realized that the guy was in fact a patient he had been seeing, who had just been released from the looney bin that morning. So of course the first thing that happens to a just-released pyschiatric patient in the outside world is that he runs into his shrink, who makes a totally nonsensical statement that sounds like a secret code. To make matters worse, we all started giggling and couldn't stop, and every time we glanced at the guy, it got worse. I never did find out if he checked back into the nuthouse after dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: brid widder
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 02:17 PM

I find in such circumstances I can fake distraught tears!!!

I took my mum... then 83 to see the last resting place of her son... my brother who died suddenly 4 years ago... on the way we popped into a garden centre so that I cound buy some snowdrop bulbs to plant by his stone... I asked if she wanted to buy something to plant... no she said... then thought about it & said... 'on the other hand I did see something on the telly about growing potatoes in a bucket'... well it would be a shame to waste good soil!!

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 03:48 PM

I well remember seeing my good friend Adam in his casket. The undertaker must have thought he had a madman on his hands when I came out in fits of giggles. Truth was that the purple silk gown and cravat that they had dressed him in was miles away from the hard drinking hiking folk singing glaswegian he was!

Still smiling at the memory and made the funeral much easier to bear:-)

Favourite Mother-in-law one was her telling me that she had to take anti-inflammables...

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 05:14 PM

Spaw, you had me rolling from your story. I would have laughed too.And what's funny also the story your friend told you at that funeral, I told to someone at my mom's funeral! (about looking good and just getting out of the hospital) It relieved some tension with some laughter.
I was at my brother's wedding and they were shooting photos. You know how it is to have to smile for the camera, pretty soon those smiles get harder and fake.
Well not really thinking where I was(in the church) I yelled out to them for a photo, "everyone say...Shit" Well it took a couple of seconds for me to realize I was in the church but everyone busted up laughing, and I have to say it was the best photo taken because everyone was laughing and had sincere smiles.
Peace, Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: JennyO
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 09:05 PM

I'm sitting at my computer giggling while my flatmates wander by giving me strange looks, and I DON'T CARE. I've decided there's no such thing as INAPPROPRIATE laughter. I agree with Pseudolus - I want people to laugh when I'm gone. The more I think about it, the more I realize how important it is to laugh. There is a woman called Helene Grover, who conducts laughter workshops to help people bring JOY back into their lives. I am just getting over a relationship which I had high hopes for but which turned out to be very painful, and my son said something to me recently which made me realize just how much of my joy I had lost in the last couple of years. He said:
"I didn't want to say this before to you mum, but I can now - you have got your laugh back. You lost it for a while - you had this tight little half laugh - but now you are laughing like yourself again."
That's what I intend to do a lot more of this year, and if anyone thinks it's inappropriate - too bad.

What a great thread this is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Banjo Bob
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 09:14 PM

Don't you just love 'em? My own mother, for instance was telling me just the other day about an aquaintance who had given my mother some questionable facts. "I had to beleive her", mom sad, "after all, she has cancer."

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Hollowfox
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 02:39 PM

Thanks for the straightening, 'Spaw, before other people's stories started distorting yours.
You're not alone in having a relative that you visit because you must; I guess everybody does. My mother remarked that I'd have no trouble filling the church at my wedding. Two pews for relatives and the rest for the National Guard.
(I'm glad you had some fun on this junket!)

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: *daylia*
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 05:02 PM

Ahhh - against the assault of laughter NO-THING can stand ... guess the only time it's inappropriate is if you WANT the thing to keep standing!

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 08:20 PM

gnu, Melani, BridWidder,
You owe me a fresh cup of coffee and possibly some fresh panties. I will wake up giggling tonight. Thanks.
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 02:20 AM

I can identify with the laughter at funerals and such.

   On the day that my wife, Pat, died last year her younger daughter, Angel, was staying with me. I thank the Good Lord that she was herte at the time. she was the one who managed to keep her head on straight enough to call her brother and sister in Chicago to tell them (I was a hopeless basket case). Roberta and Rusty (the other siblings) came up the next day to help with the funeral arrangements.

    Pat had kept two brief cases in the hall closet which were filled with momentos of her childrens' lives -- birth certificates, photos, baby shoes, first report cards and the like. I broke out said cases andf we started going through them. Each item that we pulled out would start one or another of us telling a story of some kind about Pat. Most of them were darned funny. The whole thing started to snowball on us. With each story our collective laughter would become a bit louder and a bit more raucous.We went one for a couple of hours.

    Just about the time that we all thought that we were running out of steam one of my neighbors happened to pass my apartment door and heard the laughter. His curiousity got the better of him and he knocked on my door to find out what was going on. When I answered it he, thinking that he was making a clever comment on the apparent hilarity, said, "Who died?"

    That set us all off again.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: JennyO
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 07:44 AM

The Irish have the right idea - a wake!

Everybody has to die some time, and I think it honors that person much more if you celebrate their life and remember the good times and tell stories and laugh and sing, rather than being sad and solemn all the time. There's a time for that too.

That's what I want when I die. On the other hand, it seems like so much fun, maybe I'll have a wake when I'm old, BEFORE I die! Then I can come in and say the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. It's been done before, at least in fiction.

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 11:28 AM

One of the funniest scenes in American fiction is Tom Sawyer watching his own funeral.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: denise:^)
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 12:34 PM

I can definitely relate--I am terrible about this; once I start laughing, I it's really hard to stop! To make matters worse, the more inappropriate it is, the more I've gotta laugh...

We were at the funeral of my uncle, who was very close to our family. He wasn't very old, and we had all been crying--

The priest conducting the service was up there, chatting away, when suddenly I noticed what he was saying.

"So, the ___________ ministry was founded to take church services into the prisons, to minister to the inmates there. If you are interested in volunteering for our ministry, or would like to make a contribution..."

I leaned over to my sisters. "Hey! Was that a COMMERCIAL?" I hissed under my breath. Well, it was all over then. All three of us lost it...
The best we could hope for was that people would think that our convulsing shoulders were the result of sobbing in unrestrained grief.

My uncle was not a prison inmate, had never BEEN a prison inmate, was not a minister, and didn't volunteer for preaching committees. WHERE DID THIS COME FROM? I'd love to have seen the wheels turning in his mind--it HAD to be an intricate configuration, to come up with that one!   

We never did figure it out, and no one else seemed to notice the commercial OR our temporary hysteria...

denise:^)

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 08:10 AM

At my mother's burial:

My two-year-old nephew was standing there, holding my hand. The priest was praying:

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil..."

And the kid piped up with

"For I am the meanest bastard in the valley." (Dad and uncles are veterans of the Vietnam era.)

Pandemonium reigned, the priest cracked up. Mom would have loved it.

But then, just as we were getting ready to leave, he looked up at me and loudly asked, "Why are we putting her in that hole???"

"Because," I immediately responded, "we can't keep her in the living room any more."

"Oh."

Now he understood. Those around us were left wondering, the family were cracking up.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 12:05 PM

Rapaire,

I think your family are my kinda people, man!! ROTFLMAO at both of you!

Thanks for the grin!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 06:32 PM

Rapaire -- LOL!!! Art Linkletter was right!

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: GUEST,Bill
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 08:01 PM

I went to a funeral the other week at the local Crematoreum with a cousin of mine, as we approached the main door there is a big box on the wall and a notice above it
PLEASE EXTINGUISH YOUR CIGARETTES THIS A NO SMOKING BUILDING
We looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Bill (the sound)

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 08:17 PM

Rapaire,
You are invited to my funeral. Your nephew too.

Anyone else remember the funeral service for Chuckles the Clown on the Mary Tyler Moore Show? Poor Chuckles had dressed up as a peanut for a local parade and was trampled by a rogue elephant. "A little song; a little dance; a little seltzer in your pants." And weepy Mary is reduced to giggling fits.

I have a signed copy of that script. A favorite.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 08:21 PM

Oh Lordy yes Sins!!!! A complete crackup! Maybe the funniest episode of the entire run.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 08:33 PM

My mother's funeral was, actually, a pretty neat time.

My wife and I lived about 14 hours (driving) away, so we stopped for the first night after she died at my brother's place (about 12 hours driving). He very thoughtfully provided each of us with a tumbler of Jameson's water of life.

As I sat in a chair, whiskey on the arm, talking, the two little nephews, then 4 and 2, stood by me, looking at the glass of whiskey to me to the glass to me.... My bro said, "They'd like to taste it."

"What's your opinion?"

"Go ahead. They won't like it."

So each of them took about a drop on their respective tongues, made a face, and ran away. We continued talking.

Two minutes later, the two were back. Looking at the glass, looking at me, looking at the glass....

We cracked up.

(Yes, it was the same two year old, who is now an EPA-certified fertilizer spreader. We figure that if the bottom drops out of the agricultural business he can always get a job in politics. The older one, an ex-Marine, became a father for the first time last October.)

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: JennyO
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 11:09 PM

We're still getting re-runs of the Mary Tyler Moore show, and it's not that long since I saw that episode. Yes, one of the funniest!

I think this is my favourite thread around at the moment!

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 06:07 PM

Sad but true: when my cat LuLu died after a long bout with kidney failure and a useless vet, I was too broken up to drive to another vet to dispose of the body - NYC apartment/no place to put her myself. While I sat weeping in the car my sister-in-law took LuLu into the vet's office and came out a little while later trying hard not to giggle. I was exasperated with her. I really was taking it hard.

It seems that she walked in with the dead cat whose mouth and eyes were wide open and who was as stiff as a board. The vet was in the crowded waiting room and she said "I think she's dead." The vet looked a bit perplexed and said "I think so too" reducing the entire group to fits of laughter although they really did sympathize. Later I saw the humor in it.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Art Thieme
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 08:52 PM

With friends like that, you don't need enemas. But you damn well better have some. Friends, I mean. ;-)

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 08:54 PM

One of the great things about cyber-conversations is you don't have to worry whether you're talking to a friend or an enema.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Hollowfox
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 03:11 PM

!@#$, 'Spaw, I told the kids about this thread (they cracked up, of course), and now this story keeps creeping into my brain at the damndest times - like right now at work. They worry when I start giggling to myself; they think my little voices are trying to be funny again.

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 03:14 PM

LOL 'Fox.......I can't help it either.....I keep telling the damn thing myself. Yesterday I was at my GP doctor for scrip changes and I told her the story and she cracked up! I asked her if the "Enema of Death" was a prescription item only nowadays..........I also think twice every time I have a swig of milk.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times
From: Kim C
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 03:30 PM

I laughed at my own wedding. Which surprised me, because I'm such a sobber at these things. I reckon I got the giggles because I was nervous about crying!

When I was in college, we had a guest speaker in one of our classes. I was in the front row. For some reason that I still don't know, I had an odd thought that gave me the giggles. The harder I tried not to giggle, the harder it was to keep from it. And there I was in the Front Row!

After class I personally apologized to the speaker. She didn't seem to mind.