LAUGHTER IS NOT NECESSARILY THE BEST MEDICINE
I wonder why we, as a human race, always want to laugh at the most inopportune moments? And why is it that the harder we try to stop laughing, the most impossible it becomes?
It had been raining hard that day, and the gutters were filled with water. I was walking to school along with some of my fellow school students – all girls, mine was a private girls’ school.
We were all in our hideous uniforms consisting of blue serge tunics, square neck, sleeveless, with pleats that fell all the way down to mid calf, cinched at the waist by a broad belt. Under the tunic, we wore plain white blouses – long sleeves for the cooler months, short sleeves in summer.
Maria Helena was walking along the curb, when she slipped, and fell in a graceful upward swoop smack dab in the middle of a huge muddy puddle, flat on her bottom. She’d had the foresight to hold her books up in the air so they wouldn’t get wet, and pleaded with us to help her get up, since her both her hands were filled with books. I regret to say, we couldn’t help her, because we were laughing hysterically at her predicament. It was just sooo funny to have seen her flying through the air and landing on her butt right in the middle of the deepest and muddiest part of the puddle. Oh dear, we shrieked with laughter, while she sat there, arms uplifted, getting more and more enraged as none of us were able to go to her rescue because we were weak with laughter. Eventually, she gave up – tossed her books onto the fairly dry sidewalk hoping for the best, and hoisted herself up by herself. Then in a fury, she made a dash for us, intent on smearing us with her muddy hands, but we all ran shrieking down the street. She bent over, rinsed her hands as best she could in the puddled rainwater, wiped them dry on her tunic, picked up her books then ran after us, dripping muddy water all the way, shrieking curses at us for being the heartless wretches she considered us to be.
As I have mentioned in a previous blog, in Brazilian school I was undoubtedly the class clown, and while the whole class laughed at my outrageous comments – so did the teachers! I was never once reprimanded for disturbing the class because in Brazil, humour is everywhere and is accepted at being a gift from God.
Brazilians are as a race, very humorous. I can’t tell you how often I’d be standing in line waiting for the damn bus which never turned up on time, when one wag or other in the line up would start funny antics that kept us all laughing. They were wonderful – and oh how they helped relieve the monotony of standing in line on a hot or rainy day!
So it was with this mentality that I went to College in England.
In the middle of one very boring lecture, I decided to relieve the ennui by cracking a joke! To my astonishment, even though there were a few suppressed giggles, there was also an inward collective gasp by my fellow students that I’d had the temerity to be humorous.
A sudden hush fell across the lecture room. The lecturer strode over to me, looked really angry. Good grief, I thought, what’s the matter with her?
Bending over towards me like a towering inferno, she said in a sinister whisper “I suppose you think you’re funny?”
I thought about it for a minute then responded “Well yes, actually I thought what I said was quite funny – didn’t you?”
Wrong thing to have said!
Her nostrils flared, her face went an ugly mottled red and the veins in her forehead popped out like sausages.
“Oh we have a clever one here,” she snarled sarcastically.
“Well thank you,” I said smiling.
Now I should explain, the word “clever” in North America (and probably all over the world) means “intelligent, capable, smart,” but in England, I found, in certain situations,it has a completely different connotation! It means “smart ass, clever boots, degenerate disgusting piece of horse pucky, with lashings of cow manure thrown in for good measure.”
Oops.
“WELL,” she roared, “I CAN ASSURE YOU …YOU… ARE… NOT… CLEVER!!”
“Then why did you say I was?” I asked innocently.
Breathing hard like a fat sow who’s just made a mad downhill dash for the food trough, all three chins and ginormous breasts wobbling with rage and indignation, she proceeded to tear a strip off me the likes of which I’d never experienced before, and hope never to experience again.
What made things even worse, is that she struck me as being hilariously funny. Her outraged stance, her purple engorged face, and the fact that she all but had smoke pouring out of her nose and ears, tickled my funny bone. Oh dear, I tried so hard not to laugh. She realized I was choking back laughter, and this enraged her even more. She brought her hand down hard onto my desk, causing my books to fly up into the air and land on the ground. Oh dear, this was even funnier!
Gasping I got up “Excuse me, I have to use the loo” and fled! When I got back, class was over and she thankfully had pushed off to go and bully her next class.
My fellow students gathered around me asking me if I was stark, staring mad to have done what I did? In retrospect, I should’ve known better. But I learned from this experience never to be funny in class again!
Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in Senior Chatters
I think I have your type of sense of humor Jo. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve laughed at the most inopportune times so I can really relate to your story.
Thanks sunflower for our comment. I know exactly what you mean about laughing when you feel you really shouldn’t be finding a particular situation funny.
I cant say I have that feeling of laughing at the wrong moment. Although I absolutely laughed while reading this Jo! I have worked with a wonderful lady who is now much more my friend than coworker, over 20+ years I have fallen several times, and inevitably she always laughs her head off – leaving me in the winter half under the car and half out…in my office chair that tipped over so my feet were up in the air leaving me unable to get up myself because my cubicle is small and full of boxes. She laughs so very hard that I always end up laughing and begging simutaneously for her to help me. The standard joke has now become whatever you do…never fall with only Lorie there to help you! LOL Great write Jo, perfect for a 3pm cup of joe.
Thanks so much Helen – you must be a really fun lady to work with, bringing so much laughter to your co-worker Lorie. Oh dear, I laughed at your description of having your office chair tip over so your feet were waving in the air – I could be easily imagine it! I’m glad you can enter into the spirit of the situation and laugh right along with Lorie. Maybe one of these days, she’ll be the source of amusement for you!
Thanks again for your comment – I really appreciate it.
Hi jojo. I can relate to the ‘smart’ comment. I am from New Brunswick and my wife is from Nova Scotia, close to Sheet Harbour. At first she would say:”you think you’re smart.” Well actually, I’ve been told that all the time I was going to school and even today. So I never paid too much attention until a few times afterwards, I figured she didn’t mean smart smart. She would not smile and seemed irritated even. Her ancestors are from England, probably related to your schoolteacher in some way.
But, should I ever hit my head, she would laugh uncontrollably. It would happen quite often and twice I landed in hospital emergency which I may write about soon.
I always wanted to be the clown of the class but was too shy. I thought they were cool.
Very funny Jo, I can relate to this story. I am exactly the same and so are my children. When I first met my second husband after a few months he said that my kids and I are the most sadist people he has ever met. All we did was just about roll on the ground laughing when we were all down at the local river swimming. He was trying to impress the kids and I and got up on a tarzan rope the kids got on to jump into the river. Well hubby got on took a swing out but lost his grip with one hang he came swinging back into the bank of the river with a thud. We could not stop laughing and he is just laying on the ground gritting his teeth. He did have a badly bruised leg but pffft it was funny. lol Meanwhile he still married me and is still with us, and I am still laughing at him if he hurts himnself.. lol
Loved your story Jo, still laughing. Unfortunately, not much laughter in my childhood home, lots now with my Irishman, especially when he decided to shock me and try on my beautiful new knickers, oh the pain! Even the dog laughed lol
Wonderful as always Jojo – you keep me smiling. I too, have a tendency to laugh – just at the wrong moments and agree it is so difficult to try and restrain a laugh…………..
I laugh all the time – it keeps me “sane” LOL
I always try to be in a happy frame of mind. when I was nursing I used to make my patients smile and laugh. I worked on a general surgical ward, gastroenterology. We had some quite seriously ill patients on the ward so I tried to keep their spirits up, I’d pull their legs with jikey comments, like “lets see if we can blow this bag up shall we” when doing blood pressures, it always raised a titter or two.
In fact I was on my way back to my ward from my lunch break one day when the nursing officer stopped me and said, “it is always a pleasure to see you Angela, you always have a smile on your face”. My reply to her was that patients who are ill are feeling in low spirits so they didn’t really want a miserable face to look at, therefore, I tried to be happy and smiling when on the ward.
So I have seen at first had what laughing and happiness can do, so the moral is,if you have a positive mental attitude you get better quicker