Cachinnation #2

            I laughed harder than I had in months just over a week ago. It was a brisk fall night and my friends and I were walking back to our car after eating at the BLUU. This particular night was a Thursday evening and we were all in a good mood because the weekend was only a day away. The playful, upbeat mood led to a little bit of shoving and joking amongst us. There was no harm in it and we were just trying to have a good time. Out of nowhere, one of my friends, Andy, tripped on his untied shoelace and went down in a heap. It happened so suddenly that the rest of us instantly erupted into laughter. Even bystanders were snickering at Andy’s mishap. Most people might have taken the matter a little more seriously, but my friends and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Andy is a confident kid and we knew he would embrace his misfortune so the rest of us decided to laugh and laugh without even checking to see if he was okay. After a few seconds, Andy himself even joined in the laughter. None of us could hold back the snickering, not even for a second.

            Andy proceeded to lie on the ground for a few moments before getting up. I have to say, I felt a little bit bad for him. He fell and embarrassed himself in front of a rather large crowd. Andy also scraped up one of his elbows and twisted his ankle after his tumble. He was sore for days after his fall. I found the whole situation to be quite comical. The best part was that Andy could not blame anyone but himself for what had happened. There was no practical joke or anything of that nature that led to his demise. The whole incident was completely his fault. In the days following Andy’s episode, my friends and I brought it up as much as we could because it always made us laugh.

For some reason, I tend to find watching other peoples’ mishaps quite entertaining.  Andy’s fall looked like it belonged in a YouTube fail video. To this day, I wish I had the whole thing on camera. I find fail videos on YouTube exceptionally funny and wish Andy’s fall could be a part of one for the whole world to see. Although that may seem a bit harsh, my friends and probably even Andy would find it quite entertaining.

 After watching Andy fall, I was instantly happy about the fact that it was him and not me. After considering this, I realized my attitude was directly correlating with Morreal’s superiority theory. As we learned in class, this theory states, “When something evokes laughter, it is by revealing someone’s inferiority to the person laughing.” It was interesting to see one of the tidbits I learned in Literature and Civilizations apply to my life. Andy’s fall could also have been described as situational or even slapstick humor.

Now more than ever, I find myself comparing funny instances in my life to what I have learned in class this semester. I tend to analyze humor in a way I never did before being exposed to all of the rules, theories, and tools that I have learned. The knowledge I have gained in Literature and Civilizations has become more and more relevant as the semester has continued on. Being able to compare theories and tools of humor to real life occurrences gives them a lot more weight than I ever thought possible. I love when lessons from the classroom apply to real life and could not be more glad of the connection I have made this semester because of Literature and Civilizations.