Laugh Lurking

I made a trip home for the Easter break to spend time with friends and family and took this as an opportunity to listen in and see what really made them laugh. Not surprisingly, after listening to my little brother’s talk for several minutes I found that they laugh at almost everything. There were constant references to their favorite funny tv shows or movies or slight mentions of an embarrassing moment about each other that came up constantly. To most people, the things they said would not be laugh out loud funny but I knew exactly what they were talking about when they referred to Tom trying to climb a tree or Mark falling through a wall.

                Later on I had the chance to observe my friend’s conversations and found they laughed almost constantly as well. They have never been the type of people to take things too seriously and their conversations were no exception. They did not laugh as much at each other but they still used laughter to keep the conversation moving and to let the other person know they had enjoyed what was said.  They laughed especially hard at any quote from Workaholics, which was the main topic of laughter for the night.

                Once I got back to campus I decided to spy on a more challenging set of people so I went to the library to observe a group of studying students. I’ll admit it was difficult to get close enough to a group of people and I felt like a bit of a stalker. I finally got close enough to a group who was working on a project due the next day.  I found that they used laughter quite often as well and in their case they were laughing at how ridiculous they felt the project was and how they had waited until the night before to complete it.

                 Observing these conversations over the weekend helped me realize just how much we use laughter in our everyday conversations. Without it, many conversations would be boring and awkward. It not only signals that we found something funny, it lets the other person know we are paying attention and interested in the conversation. This reminded me of the point made earlier in the semester that laughter is a social experience and that most of the time it is shared between two or ore people.