BS: Laughing at Inappropriate Times

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: 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: Cluin
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 05:37 PM

You people are all SICK!

...but funny

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: MMario
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:31 PM

I suspect I would have been laughing as well.

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