Ever laughed at a completely inappropriate moment?

Question

I have. Someone at work was talking about how her relative went to some foreign country and was tortured. Now, that's NOT funny, but I laughed nervously because it was so completely unexpected (it was incidental to what she was saying) and then was horrified by my own reaction immediately. Thankfully she didn't hold it against me. Anyone else?

Answer 1

Before I tell my tale I'll just attest that personally I don't believe laughing was inappropriate, it's more down to social conventions.

I was 18, and coming back from a geography trip on a mini-bus during my last year of A levels. Anyway, some people got to the subject of death and funerals, and what sort of songs they would have played. Someone said they'd have Wet Wet Wet at their wedding. Another couple said they'd have Wonderwall and Imagine at their funeral. But it was one boy, one of the sort of people who enjoys messing about and it's always slightly amusing when they try to be earnest anyway, that took me over the limit. He said he would have Every Breath You Take (a song about an obsessive lover) played at his funeral; and then said his Grandma had Angels played at her funeral (didn't see that one coming) and that now whenever he tried listening to Angels he started sobbing and had to turn it off. And gosh, it was all so sincere.

I just cracked up at how pathetically clichéd and inappropriate most of these songs were; and how their taste in music was so unrefined. They were an uncultured lot and I was a bit of a snob so it was pretty funny seeing them attempt to be serious. It was all so saccharine I burst in to uncontrollable laughter.

Excellent question, by the way!

Answer 2

Yes!!

I am terrible, I tend to laugh in extremely serious situations, once in a wedding, another time in a very serious work meeting. I had to leave as I could not stop, quiet embarrassing.
What went through my mind was how everybody was so serious, this triggered the laughter. I have an acute sense of irony.

Sometimes we laugh because we are nervous, others because we don't fit in a specific scenario and many others because we know we shouldn't laugh

Answer 3

To some of my friends I have a very odd sense of humor.....I tend to laugh at almost anything so um in a good amount of the things I laugh at I'm sure are inappropriate. I've laughed at little kids falling on their face, old women tripping.....I feel so horrible typing this but sometimes you just can't control what you laugh at.....sometimes. And it's those unexpected moments that make me feel really bad later on. You are not alone hun. I need a hug now lol.

Answer 4

As a child I always laughed when I was scared!
In a weird way it helped stop some sticky situations, as I must have come across as a nutcase!
I always used to get a fit of the giggles when I looked at a partcular boy in a certain class at school!
Fortunately, he didn't take it personally, but he would try and keep me giggling so we couldn't hear the teacher, or do any work! Major embarrassment!

Answer 5

Twice, I laughed at the wrong time when a person fell down a couple of stairs. I have no idea why I would find that funny. And, yet, I had the same reaction to a similar incident many years after the first time.
C. :)!!

Answer 6

Yes I have... I was sat face to face having a serious chat with my college tutor, but he was staring at my chest while he was speaking to me, he didn't try to hide what he was doing, although he did seem a little nervous about being around me (as some of my friends have pointed out also before this incident). Well... then he started stuttering and I could not control myself, I laughed but tried to make out I was coughing, which made it seem much more obvious.
Bless him!

Answer 7

Yeah, I have before. One time my aunt was looking for something in the trunk of a car and the hood came down and hit her in the back of the neck.

She wasn't hurt, but for some reason I found that to be very funny.

I felt bad about laughing, though.

Answer 8

OH yes!!!!!!!!!!! I was at a funeral years ago, that included serious religious divisions!
I was with the grandson and young grandsons wife. We were standing directly in-front of the casket.
The two young grand kids had just returned from a vacation in Maryland to attend the funereal of grandpa!

This is what went wrong...An older woman walked up to us and addressed the grandchildren, a newly wed couple.
The woman said" So, you"all were in Maryland...SO did you get crabs?"
Well. I started to shake, and the grandson tried not to look at me, but he started to shake, and his wife, hick upped.
That was all it took...Right in-front of the funeral home, in front of the dead grandfather...we started to laugh uncontrollably until we were in tears.
Then to top it off the poor older woman looked at us and said"Did I say something wrong?".............
We have never been the same since, and God rest grandfathers soul!

Answer 9

Yep. At a funeral. But I was reminded of something really funny that had happened and the person who we were honoring was part of it and laughed the loudest. I did feel bad at the time, but when I have thought about it after, he would have loved that I laughed.

Answer 10

Private,

Yea...just happens sometimes. It's not like you plan it.

I had a job as a kid where the supervisor was an unreasonable person (who hasn't, right?). His reaction to being frustrated was to place totally ridiculous demands on everyone.

I couldn't help myself. I looked at him and saw that he was serious, and it made me laugh harder.

Man, he got MAD. Just turned around and left...without saying another word.