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Laughing at pain

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

03:27 / 10.01.06

I have a set of cousins who, at random moments in conversation, will slap the hell out of each other. This is a cue for the slapped cousin to make a sound that is half shriek half sob. They know every time I see this it cracks me up.

Lately I've been wondering if this is healthy or ethically decent behaviour, as the shriek/sob expresses pain not just on a physical level but emotional as well (it is a very expressive noise. They are talented kids in this regard). Is it okay to laugh? Should I discourage this behavior?

Char Aina

03:28 / 10.01.06

hell no.
you should encourage and foster it so they can get a TV show.

remember;
if it bleeds, we can sell it.

Keith, like a scientist

03:40 / 10.01.06

Sell it....from The Bleed.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

05:53 / 10.01.06

I have a set of cousins who, at random moments in conversation, will slap the hell out of each other.

This sounds like Jackass and all those other shows that MTV show. Sell it to MTV2, they'd love it.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

05:58 / 10.01.06

It's not the random physical violence that makes me laugh so much as the sound. They are able to express with a single cry years of soul-crushing physical and emotional abuse, and the timing is always perfect.

Char Aina

13:20 / 10.01.06

POST MPEGZ!!!!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:00 / 10.01.06

At the moment, I'm prepared to take a tyre iron to anyone who considers dental pain in any way amusing. Anything else, I'm not too bothered. But I'm not sure I'm in the right place to judge right now.

Evil Scientist

14:03 / 10.01.06

Must...repress...Marathon Man comment!

BlueMeanie

14:10 / 10.01.06

They are able to express with a single cry years of soul-crushing physical and emotional abuse, and the timing is always perfect.

Reminds me, for some reason, of The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, or maybe Basil Fawlty's numerous outbursts. Seems that existential angst can be funny.

The question is, why? Maybe it's a form of catharsis based on realising that others sometimes experience it too.

ZF!

14:23 / 10.01.06

They are able to express with a single cry years of soul-crushing physical and emotional abuse, and the timing is always perfect.

I'm laughing at this now, just from the way you explained it.

In fact I just saw the question in your thread description...

"If the pain being presented as comedy is emotional in nature, is it still funny?"

and laughed at that too.

Maybe I'm just mean.

ibis the being

16:35 / 10.01.06

This is basically just slapstick comedy, right?

I've made humans as young as two giggle at slapstick routines involving bopping myself over the head and pretending to wail. I don't know just what is so funny about it, but it seems to be hardwired in the human sense of humor.

Sniv

16:54 / 10.01.06

Maybe we laugh because it's not happening to us? My girlfriend loves the violence shows like Jackass and Dirty Sanchez. She used to laugh so hard she couldn't breathe, and when I asked her why she'd say, between peals of laughter, "Because it looks like it really hurts."

People are sick. It's the way we are. I wonder if any animals find humour or happiness in the misfortunes of their fellow furries? I bet monkies do, they're evil too.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

19:28 / 10.01.06

This is basically just slapstick comedy, right?

That's what I used to think. Like 3 Stooges stuff, Curly carries a two-by-four over his shoulder, turns, and cracks Moe on the back of the head. "Why I oughtta..." and all that. But it's the wail, the outburst (sometimes choked) of mental anguish that years of abuse gives one, that really cracks me up.

I've begun to wonder where they hear such totured cries often enough for them to effortlessly re-create it.

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