I’m not sure there is much that’s harder for a human being that trying not to laugh when something strikes you as funny – I know that as a parent of toddlers, I am faced with this particular conundrum pretty regularly these days.
No matter the reason you’re not supposed to laugh – the time, the place, the joke, what have you – trying to hold it in only makes you want to laugh, more right?
You’re gonna be so glad that you’re allowed to laugh, at least, when you read through these 13 responses.
13. I could not have kept it together.
A guy was acting as his own attorney. He was questioning himself in court by standing up, asking a question, then sitting down to answer it.
The judge finally looked at him and said, “Sit down, Mr. X.”
I almost lost it, but managed to hold my court demeanor.
12. I think he would like that.
Great Uncle’s funeral.
The vicar was doing his thing, but when he said “our soul”, in his posh-ish accent it sounds just like “arsehole” and it got me. I managed to keep it together the first time, but after the second one I could barely hold it back….
It was something like, “our soul is something we should cherish, it defines who we are…”
I was stifling laughter to the point of tears, my mum said after she thought I was crying.
There’s an Oasis song called Acquiesce where the same things happens and me and my cousin, who was sitting away from me inside the church, used to make each other laugh by singing that (we were about 13 or 14 at the time). After the service had finished we met outside and were rolling about it fits of laughter – he had had the exact same reaction.
It’s something we still laugh about 20 years later.
11. That is not what he wanted to say.
Our teacher was scolding the class but in his rage induced lecture he accidentally knocked over a stack of graded papers onto the floor ruining the perfect by name order he had them in. That’s not what was funny.
What was funny was he immediately said out loud aw shucks since he wouldn’t swear. This came out of a man who’s face was red as a lobster. I almost choked trying not to laugh
10. This is amazingly terrible.
I was giving a hitting lesson to a 9 year old kid before the pandemic.
After the lesson his dad mentioned that when you get older you can get whatever name or nickname printed on your wood bat.
The kid asked if he could get “c*ck sucker” printed on his bat. I had to put my glove over my mouth so he wouldn’t see me laughing!
9. Insult to injury.
My normally pretty chill, easily distracted science teacher at secondary school went off at a kid for slamming his books on the desk.
“HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID?!”
Punctuating “stupid” by slamming his fist down on the paperwork in front of him.
However, as he slammed his fist down, I heard a slight tinkle that struck me as odd.
Ten or so minutes later I notice the teacher’s face went bright red as he moves the paperwork that was in front of him to discover the freshly broken glass plate from overhead projector…
8. Well this is awkward.
So the Dean of our college had recently passed away due to cancer, and he was a nice/popular guy so he was well liked by students and faculty.
During an event to commemorate him, all the students and faculty gathered and some people went on stage to share their memories of him.
This one guy (a new student who barely knew him) goes up on stage and starts giving this really emotional speech. The only problem was that he was talking about another faculty member, who was very much alive and had just gone abroad for a few months for training. The dude went into all the details about his life and even called him by name to make it evident what was happening. Turns out he thought the wrong guy was dead, and his attempt at an overly emotional speech made it worse.
Looking at all the confused people on stage, the situation was very funny; but just before him, other students and teachers had given heartfelt eulogies for the Dean so it felt wrong to laugh at the time…
7. The important stuff.
Paramedic here, watched a drunk falling down a bunch of stairs.
He had several broken bones and looked like a pretzel.
He then just screamed at his friend to get him a new beer because he dropped his.
Nearly pissed myself.
6. Kids are always bringing the fun.
You’re not allowed to laugh at a funeral, right?
Well we all did, so I guess this counts: at my grandmother’s funeral, when the priest asked us all for a moment of silence to remember my grandmother, my 5 year old brother, amidst all the silence and hushed crying and tears saw the priest lighting candles and started singing at the top of his lungs, “happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!”
He turned one of the saddest moments of my life into the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
5. Was this an episode of South Park?
While having dinner with my friend who has a 5 year old and a 3 year old:
5yo: “you know what Wyatt said in class today? He said ‘f*ck you!'”
3yo: “f*ck me…..”
4. An excellent question.
There is always hilarity when you have young kids at funerals.
I can still feel the dirty looks from my relatives when I burst out laughing at my grandfather’s funeral and it was damn near 25 years ago!
We were all milling around at the funeral home for the after service wake when my young cousin came up and had this confused look on his face. I asked what was up, expecting him to ask why people were sad or something. Nope. He pointed to the security bars on the windows and asked “are those to keep people in or keep people out?” I laughed so hard that I damn near wet myself.
3. Stop it.
At my friend’s grandfather’s funeral. The first sentence of the pastor’s speech was “We are all here because we love Dick so much.” His name was Richard.
This holy man gave a 15 minute speech about his love of Dick and how Dick changed his life. My wife and I did not make eye contact through the entire thing for fear of busting out laughing in a quiet, crowded church.
It took me about a year to ask my friend his thoughts about it and apparently he was close to losing it too.
2. He got the last laugh.
I was in a cadaver lab for an anatomy class, and that week we were learning hip and upper leg muscles.
My group were at the table and one of the guys proceeded to roll the cadaver leg over, from looking at the hamstring to study the quads.
We didn’t realize that the leg belonged to a male until its d*ck slapped him straight on the back of his hand.
Entire group was breathing super hard trying not to laugh and appear disrespectful in the eyes of the tutors, but I honestly reckon the guy would’ve been laughing with us.
1. I think I would have lost it.
Helping a Grade 2 class (~8 year olds) and one of the kids was just so loud.
He was running around the class when one of the girls held out her arm and clotheslined him.
I was able to keep a straight face for that but she kneeled down and yelled, “Boom!” at him.
He started crying, they both got a detention, and I almost bit through my tongue.
I don’t know whether I love or hate this feeling, to be honest.
What’s your story along these lines? Share it with us in the comments!
