Sunday, October 6, 2013

Uncontrollable Laughter #1


            Let me premise this with saying that I am ashamed at my most recent fit of uncontrollable laughter. I do not mean to offend anymore or seem insensitive. The laughter was from shock rather than subject matter. I know that doesn’t really make sense right now, but it had to be said. With that, I’ll get to my story.
            Vine has become the most recent obstacle between productivity and me. For those of you who may not know what Vine is (shame on you), it is basically Instragram but instead of pictures, it’s seven-second videos. Vine has renewed my faith in humanity. The amount of weirdoes and comedians on Vine is astonishing and I love it. Unless you’ve seen it, you would not believe some of the things people have managed to video themselves doing in a seven-second-time period. I’m ashamed to say that I have spent hours of my time watching Vines instead of doing things that would actually make sense, like homework or engaging in social interactions or eating or sleeping. Last night, I was neglecting sleep in order to entertain myself with the creative videos of Vine. That's where the “uncontrollable laughter” part of this blog comes into play. Please remember the disclaimer I made at the beginning of this little story and enjoy.
            Being “Vine Famous” is a new phenomenon among our generation. This simply means that a person has a ton of followers on Vine. Last night, I was creeping on some person that's famous for his random, outlandish, but hilarious Vines. I was getting kind of bored and was about finally go to sleep when I saw the funniest Vine I’ve ever seen. Of course it’s not going to sound all that life changing when I tell you about it, and I'm not even really sure why I thought it was so funny. But I’ll get to that part in a minute. Anyway, this Vine started with the Viner sprinting through a grocery store frantically yelling, “they’re coming, they’re coming!” Next, a parade of midgets comes running after him. I AM A BAD PERSON FOR LAUGHING, I KNOW. I don’t think midgets are funny in themselves, that is mean. The reason I laughed uncontrollably for a solid ten minutes was because I was so shocked. I guess you could call it a cognitive shift or support for the Incongruity Theory. Through my tears of laughter I kept asking my roommate where he found all those midgets and how he convinced them to chase after him in a grocery store. Clearly, she had no answers for me, but she was thoroughly entertained watching me crying from laughing so hard. But seriously, how do you make that happen? Post a flyer around town advertising your Vine idea? Is there a number you can call to get a troupe of midgets? HOW? I just don’t understand it. In retrospect, it’s really not that funny, but for whatever reason, I thought I was going to die from laughing so hard. Everyone else I showed it to laughed, but no one else reacted the way I did. I still feel badly for laughing at all, but again, I was not laughing at the midgets, I was laughing at the ridiculousness of the entire video. I was not prepared for what I saw, and I will never be the same because of it. No one can answer my questions concerning this Vine, and that's just something I’ll have to learn to live with. Wish me luck. 

2 comments:

  1. Ive seen a video similar to this Grace in one of the Jackass Movies. I dont think youre a bad person for thinking this is funny at all! There is definitely some sort of cognitive shift that causes laughter in a vine like that. You're watching someone run through a relatively normal place yelling and then a crowd of people you dont expect comes running around the corner. I think its okay for that to cause laughter!

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  2. Grace,

    This post literally made me laugh out loud when I read it. I think the fit of laughter you experienced is exactly as you guessed—a cognitive shift. When you watched the video you probably were already confused to why someone was running through a grocery store yelling “they’re coming, they’re coming!” but you are taken through another cognitive shift when it’s something that you would never assume would be chasing someone. Maybe the best greatest bursts of laughter occur when two cognitive shifts happen back to back.

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