why do people laugh at sad things?

[dreamer87]

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[imperfection]

Defense mechanism - people don't know how to react to things that make them uncomfortable, so they laugh.

 

That would my best guess.

[Gooner]

You're definitely not missing anything...some people just never grow up to become serious adults no matter what their education level.

[thinkofaname]

Feeling awkward + other people laughing = laughter

[UTPEOPLE]

I read somewhere that laughter is a way of controlling our fear, of bravely facing the known. Laughter, evolutionarily speaking, is supposed to have come from the guttoral growls of fear from primordial man, maybe these misfortunes scare us and our way of warding off the fear that it could happen to us is through laughter?

[~me~]

I sometimes smile when I hear something really sad to prevent me from crying/tearing up in public.. this happens without conscious thought. As you can imagine, it's quite awkward for me sometimes as it makes people think I'm less sympathetic to their plight when that's really not the case.

 

I would never laugh at something sad though. But maybe some people can't help laughing just as I can't help smiling? Who knows..

[thinkofaname]

i heard that tickling activates pain receptors... and i agree that it certainly feels painful... yet we laugh

[future_doc]

Absolutely not a funny matter and I think that imperfection has hit the nail on the head. And should it be a close friend or family member, for sure, there would be a totally different reaction - the same, I believe, if they are in a doctor-patient relationship. In other words, these people who immaturelky laught out of nervousness, dismcomfort and following the crowd, I would expect to step up to the plate and never laught again. It is immature, insensitive and awful to laugh. They have no idea of the suffering experienced.

[future_doc]

There is absolutely a disconnect, you are so right. And I have dealt with stroke victims and patients with Parkinson's, working with them as a team one on one so that they may increase their mobility, their balance, etc. The slightest improvement in their mobility, in overcoming a balance problem, etc. makes such a big change to their attitiude and mobility, how could anybody laugh at someone who could be any of us, a parent, grandparent or sibling. You have every right to be pissed off and if I saw someone laughing, I would go into defence mode for the patient and try to make the person laughing more sensitive of other's feelings and problems.

[future_doc]

It is terrible and shows lack of compassion, sensitivity and maturty. I guess in the example you first gave there is a social component where the "group" becomes one and feeds of each other in the group supporting themselves with this obnoxious behaviour. Taking group behaviour to the extreme, Rwanda is a horrific example of where supposedly decent people hacked to death their neighbours, children, mothers, with whom they talked and played only days before, and there was no escape. And the perpetrators have been integrated back into society.

[estairella]

Alright, I'll be the devil's advocate:

 

1) Michael J. Fox looks like he's jacking off rigorously in that video. (Also he suffers from early-onset Parkinson's.. come on, everyone knows this!)

 

2) People with STDs who taking high risk sexual activities end up dying. Har har, sucks to be them!

 

 

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Okay, to be honest I'm not sure what the big deal is. It's not like they're laughing at anyone's face... you can disagree with whether it's funny or not, but there are far worse things that people still find amusing (e.g. I think 2girls1cup is hilarious... even though in reality, it's two poverty-stricken girls getting paid peanuts to swallow each other's vomit & sh*t... probably never thought of that, did you?).

 

It has nothing to do with higher education, nor should it - a person's sense of humour does not change after university. Of course, it's perfectly within your right to not like it.

 

EDIT: Check out Cyanide & Happiness, they're doing depressing week...

http://www.explosm.net/comics

Hundreds of thousands of people read it every day and find it hilarious.. they can't all be wrong!

[future_doc]

No excuse laughing at the sick and vulnerable.

 

But we are all built differently.

[The Law]

No excuse laughing at the sick and vulnerable.

 

But we are all built differently.

 

I wouldn't really say there is no excuse to. Life's often giving people lemons, this is just one way to deal with it - as you suggested, we're all built differently.

[The Law]

Alright, I'll be the devil's advocate:

 

1) Michael J. Fox looks like he's jacking off rigorously in that video. (Also he suffers from early-onset Parkinson's.. come on, everyone knows this!)

 

2) People with STDs who taking high risk sexual activities end up dying. Har har, sucks to be them!

 

 

------------------------------

 

Okay, to be honest I'm not sure what the big deal is. It's not like they're laughing at anyone's face... you can disagree with whether it's funny or not, but there are far worse things that people still find amusing (e.g. I think 2girls1cup is hilarious... even though in reality, it's two poverty-stricken girls getting paid peanuts to swallow each other's vomit & sh*t... probably never thought of that, did you?).

 

It has nothing to do with higher education, nor should it - a person's sense of humour does not change after university. Of course, it's perfectly within your right to not like it.

 

EDIT: Check out Cyanide & Happiness, they're doing depressing week...

http://www.explosm.net/comics

Hundreds of thousands of people read it every day and find it hilarious.. they can't all be wrong!

 

LOL mcat wizard and hilarious sense of humour, med schools better love you!

[NewfieMike]

yeah, I think the response to these situations is very context dependent. Just because people don't share your way of handling traumatic situations, doesn't mean that they are wrong. Illness and death is just an equal part of life as happiness and health. Just because the people in your class are laughing, it's a whole new ball game if they're put into the context to deal with a patient.

 

Take that famous neurology book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". It's a book that most people find amusing/interesting because it is full of the most bizarre phenotypes of strange neurological conditions. We laugh about them while reading them because they are humorous. However, it must be very challenging for the person living with this condition and their family members. So, if we were dealing with them, in a totally different context our behaviour and probably thoughts would change accordingly. I think it's very unfair to assume that the premeds laughing at these things in one context are going to make terrible physicians when dealing with these cases in a different context.

[astrogirl]

I wouldn't laugh at someone else's misfortune, but I often laugh at my own because it's more fun to laugh than to cry. As a silly example, I was swimming with a bunch of friends in an outdoor pool once and I got a really bad leg cramp. Like really bad. I felt like my whole leg was imploding and ripping to shreds, and it was a good thing I was in the really shallow part at the time so I could sit down and not drown, because I certainly couldn't move or stand up. And then the pool was closing, and it was the last night it was open so they wanted to drain the water, but I couldn't get out of the pool for like 20 minutes! And the pain in my leg just kept getting worse, but for some reason it was just really funny to me and I was just cracking up at how hilarious I must have looked, stuck in the pool like that.

 

I think there's a lot to be said for keeping a positive attitude about things, while not being insensitive.

[DOC_Ma]

hi all

 

i'm just wondering if someone could answer this for me: why is it sometimes when something sad is discussed in classes, that the whole class will start laughing?

 

for example, for one of my classes we saw a video of Michael Fox, who suffers from a movement disorder

 

 

and during and after the clip people were laughing. i was quite disgusted that people who like to call themselves highly educated, sitting in an upper level class think something like this is funny.

 

another time in a virology class, the prof talked about how if you have hepatitis B and have unprotected sex and get hep D off your partner, you're basically screwed cause you'll die faster and again to my shock people were scoffing? and the prof actually was like "you think that's funny? dying?" and they shut up

 

but i'm wondering if i'm missing something here - is that just the natural reaction of some people - to laugh when they see something that makes them nervous? because to me, it's disgusting and i'm very offended by it.

 

Sorry but the video itself is funny I laughed when I saw it. But I am not laughing at his misfortune. if you don't put it into the context a man looks like he is constantly jerking off is really funny.

[leap87]

I wouldn't laugh at someone else's misfortune, but I often laugh at my own because it's more fun to laugh than to cry. As a silly example, I was swimming with a bunch of friends in an outdoor pool once and I got a really bad leg cramp. Like really bad. I felt like my whole leg was imploding and ripping to shreds, and it was a good thing I was in the really shallow part at the time so I could sit down and not drown, because I certainly couldn't move or stand up. And then the pool was closing, and it was the last night it was open so they wanted to drain the water, but I couldn't get out of the pool for like 20 minutes! And the pain in my leg just kept getting worse, but for some reason it was just really funny to me and I was just cracking up at how hilarious I must have looked, stuck in the pool like that.

 

I think there's a lot to be said for keeping a positive attitude about things, while not being insensitive.

 

LMAO. Sorry for laughing. The same thing happened to me, but I was swimming in the deep end and then I just sank. I remember my prof yelling at me "You! You! Why aren't you swimming? What kind of a swimming is that?! Get to the other side!" and I'm like "I can't...." (while sort of sinking) and she goes "Listen young lady... if you don't start swimming right this minute, I'm going to fail you!" lol. I somehow made it to the other end and she wanted me to do another lap, but I was like - "NO WAY" lol. I told her later what was the problem. lol

[orange123]

LMAO. Sorry for laughing. The same thing happened to me, but I was swimming in the deep end and then I just sank. I remember my prof yelling at me "You! You! Why aren't you swimming? What kind of a swimming is that?! Get to the other side!" and I'm like "I can't...." (while sort of sinking) and she goes "Listen young lady... if you don't start swimming right this minute, I'm going to fail you!" lol. I somehow made it to the other end and she wanted me to do another lap, but I was like - "NO WAY" lol. I told her later what was the problem. lol

 

Oh that's ****ty astrogirl and leap. I've had cramps as I swim too, so I know now to stay on the very side lanes, so that if I ever get a leg cramp, I have something to hold onto and get my self out of the water! Funny in retrospect though; not as one feels the excruciating pain.

[HBP]

hi all

 

i'm just wondering if someone could answer this for me: why is it sometimes when something sad is discussed in classes, that the whole class will start laughing?

 

for example, for one of my classes we saw a video of Michael Fox, who suffers from a movement disorder

 

 

and during and after the clip people were laughing. i was quite disgusted that people who like to call themselves highly educated, sitting in an upper level class think something like this is funny.

 

another time in a virology class, the prof talked about how if you have hepatitis B and have unprotected sex and get hep D off your partner, you're basically screwed cause you'll die faster and again to my shock people were scoffing? and the prof actually was like "you think that's funny? dying?" and they shut up

 

but i'm wondering if i'm missing something here - is that just the natural reaction of some people - to laugh when they see something that makes them nervous? because to me, it's disgusting and i'm very offended by it.

 

 

Great Scott!

 

Re: the Jfox video... do you go to UofT? Was it in an HMB course?

 

I laughed after the video in my HMB course because the dude said he was American!! Dude is Canadian!!!