Are you the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral? While it’s probably super awkward in the moment, it’s way more common than you think. It’s not unheard of for people to burst out laughing at the most inappropriate times, which is exactly what happened to these poor folks.
Pikrepo
#1 Hold it In
A woman got on stage to sing during a friend’s wedding as part of the ceremony. It was naturally a song the bride and groom chose. As soon as she opened her mouth, it became clear that she was absolutely tone-deaf. I was trying not to laugh but two guys behind me started laughing and it set off a chain reaction of laughter. Even the groom was red-faced from trying not to laugh. She just kind of sheepishly left the stage afterward.
#2 A Little Whipped Cream
At my grandaunt’s funeral. She was a big, jolly food lover while alive and is sorely missed. Everything was going along and there were lots of tears while the vicar was giving the eulogy. Then he shared her last words, “Come on! A little whipped cream isn’t going to kill me!” I lost my mind. This was 10 years ago and I still feel terrible for laughing.
#3 Jesus Loves You
My friend and I were altar boys. An older woman took to the podium to read a bible passage. The passage described how Jesus loves everyone: the sick and the healthy, the rich and the poor, the circumcised and the uncircumcised. That's all it took for a pair of 10-year-old boys to start laughing hysterically in front of a packed church.
#4 Tickled to the Core
A young teenager was leaning forward in a chair at a restaurant, lost traction, and slammed their face into the table. Absolute bawling ensued. Their parents stopped eating their salads to make sure they were okay, but I was sitting at the table next to them and cracked up at the sound of them hitting the table. I lost it even more when they started crying. I was a horrible human being in that moment. I felt bad after the fact, but in the moment, it tickled me to my core.
#5 Supporting the Kids
This was at a ballet school performance. It was for kids ranging from 5 to 16-year-olds. For one of the younger age groups, they did this thing where one kid pranced from one corner of the stage to the other, and then another kid would do the opposite, in a big X pattern. They would have these gigantic grins on their faces, it was just horribly precious. I started losing it at about the 15th kid, but it went on for 40 children! By the end, I was in tears and all the other adults in the audience near me had found it contagious. So everyone was just sitting there, laughing at their own children.
Pxfuel
#6 Lion’s Den
Group therapy. A kid (22 or so) was talking passionately about his struggles with Asperger's and OCD. He had a squeaky voice. He started talking about his OCD categories: things that belonged under the earth, things that belonged on the earth, things that belonged in the water, and things that belonged in space. He named specific objects like rocks, bugs, etc.
He said there were some things he couldn’t fit neatly into his categories, even if they seemed like they were supposed to be in one. This distressed him. He bemoaned cars. He bemoaned women and pointed at one. Then with no segue, announced that the reason he was there was that he snuck into the zoo at night and leapt into the lion enclosure. I had to bury my face in my elbow and turn away. Of course, his problems were real, but it just seemed so out of place.
#7 Zero Percent
My daughter was in the first or second grade, doing online math homework where she had to answer a bunch of math questions. It would then give her the percentage of correct answers at the end and re-ask the ones she missed. She was down to one question and got it wrong, so she got 0% correct. She burst out crying because she got 0%, and for some reason I thought that was so funny that I bust out laughing and couldn't stop. Then she got even madder and cried harder because I was laughing at her, which made me laugh harder, which made her cry harder...
#8 Kermit Lives Forever
In a technology class a couple of years ago, we were having a talk about Kermit the Frog. I don’t remember how we got there. Eventually, it got to a point where my teacher told the class to quiet down and "stop Kermit.” Someone then said, in a completely quiet classroom, in a flawless Kermit voice, "I never die.”
#9 Virgin Most Powerful
A few years ago, I was participating in a religious ceremony with my extended family. I'm not religious, but my mom and her family are, so I agreed to participate. I was tasked with reading one of the sections aloud and had to read off a list of titles of the Virgin Mary. Most of them were pretty straightforward, "Queen of the Angels, Queen Most Holy,” etc.
But there's one section that starts with the word "Virgin..." I got to it and tried not to smirk, but as soon as I said the phrase "Virgin Most Powerful," I glanced at my brother and my partner. They were grinning at me. Their grins caused me to burst into giggles and I had to excuse myself while my mom glared knives into me. My brother continued the rest of the reading.
#10 Scolding Tone
My cousin’s wedding was the first Catholic wedding I’ve attended. At some point, my cousin and the groom sat there while the pastor, in a very stern tone, told them that they must be there for each other, must love each other, must do this, must do that, etc. It wasn’t anything bad per se, but this scolding tone... all the weddings I’ve attended up to this point were light-hearted.
Then I saw these two, sitting there and pretty much being yelled at by a pastor. So naturally, the absurdity of this situation made me laugh. Soon my fiance started to laugh, then my mom, followed by my sister. My dad takes church very seriously, though, and just completely refused to see the humor in it all.
#11 The Luck We Had
My cousin and I are best friends, but we were really crazy back when we were eight. In the fourth grade, we both were in this school where the teachers forbid downloading stuff on the computers. So, naturally, we were going to ignore this. So we then decided to, I'm not kidding, download some adult material.
Let me just explain how the PCs were lined up. It was basically four rows of tables with computers on them, meaning that there were many kids beside and behind us. Also, there were two teachers going around to check on the kids. We searched for adult material and immediately, as the results appeared, we started laughing as loud as possible.
I thought, "Yep, this is it. We're gonna get caught." One of the teachers was behind us, checking on the other row. We were laughing so hard that I couldn't move the mouse to close the window, wondering how no one even batted an eye. I managed to download a picture and closed the window off, then moved the picture in a random folder and we were never caught. To this day, I can't believe the luck our dumb selves had.
#12 The Boy in Front
I was once hired to sing at a funeral and right before I was called up, the little boy in front of me ripped the loudest toot. I dug my face into my lady friend’s shoulder and my whole body trembled as I tried to keep it together. Within seconds, I was at the pulpit and trying to come up with what I would do if I broke out laughing. I sang to the best of my ability with a “cough” every now and then. We left immediately afterwards and laughed in the car till we couldn’t breathe.
#13 Teacher’s Note
I was getting scolded by a teacher and just started to laugh in her face. She then wrote a note and told me to get it signed by my parents. I went back home and gave the note to my dad for him to sign. He started scolding me and then I started laughing again. I'll spare you the details of what happened after that.
#14 What Happened?
When I started my job on L&D, someone was telling another person about a woman whose baby had passed away. The first person asked her, “Oh my God, what happened?” and the second person just said, “it passed away.” Honestly, that comment made me laugh a little because of course it did, the woman wanted to know how.
#15 Really Playing it Up
We were at my uncle's funeral, whose passing was a surprise. I was standing with my cousin who just came back from abroad to attend her dad's funeral and was breaking down. My aunt, the deceased's sister, came to tell my cousin that someone apologized for not being able to attend. Apparently, she was in the hospital due to a car accident.
My aunt went on describing the woman's very difficult condition and how she had an "iron pole" stuck into her forehead. 10 minutes later, the woman appeared through the door in perfect health with just some scratches. My cousin saw her and looked at me from the other side of the crowded silent room. We both couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the funeral.
#16 Down a Hill
This happened after the most horrible attack in our country’s history. I was in class with some people who survived it and one person was a really heavy girl. She was telling the story about how she survived and it included a part where she said that "she rolled down a hill.” Despite the seriousness of the situation, I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the thought of her actually rolling down a hill. Yes, I know I'm going to Hell.
#17 Dodging Dishes
One of our friend’s grandma just passed. We had her over so she had someone to talk to. Her grandma developed bad schizophrenia and didn’t recognize her husband or her daughter and her husband with whom she lived. Our friend went on to describe one particularly dramatic evening when grandma started to throw dishes at grandpa since, well, she didn’t recognize him.
He had to dodge all those plates and glasses, which I had to picture and found somewhat amusing. Then our friend mentioned that her poor grandpa is wheelchair-bound and now I had to imagine her grandpa frantically wheeling around to dodge flying dishes. I had to excuse myself to the bathroom where I completely lost it.
#18 Gaggle of Giggling Kiddos
Our band director had a notoriously bad temper. One day, we were hyper and just being middle schoolers. A concert was coming up, so the director was tense. We wouldn’t focus and kept messing up and suddenly, he threw his music stand across the room. Sheet music went everywhere, his baton landed in the brass section and everyone just froze. He stormed into his office and slammed and locked the door. We sat there in complete silence for a minute and then I got the giggles. Pretty soon, we were a gaggle of giggling kiddos.
#19 Two Confused People
When my parents told my sister and I that they were getting divorced. They obviously hated each other for years and we knew that move was a long time coming. But after they broke the news, my sister and I looked at each other and we both just started laughing. I’ve never seen two people so confused in my life.
#20 Dollar-Sized Spot
I was working at a sign-shop and me and this other guy were drilling holes into some wood paneling. The other guy said, "Hey look" and acted like he was going to drill into the side of his head. The drill bit he was using was one of those flat and wide ones used for boring larger holes. While it was spinning, it grabbed ahold of his hair, ripped out a chunk, and left a perfectly-round half-dollar sized bald-spot on the side of his head. I had to set down whatever I was doing since I was laughing so hard. I kept apologizing to him for doing so. He told me the next day that his girlfriend reacted the same way I did.
#21 Throwing Pencils
I accidentally ate some edibles in college. A friend just handed me a cookie and it took me swallowing it to recognize the taste. I was busy playing on my phone, not paying attention to the conversation our group was having, so I’m sure he wasn’t trying to mess with me. Sitting in a class about an hour later, I suddenly remembered that we used to throw pencils at the ceiling in high school to get them stuck. I had a mechanical pencil, so I doubted it would work. I looked up and realized that the back five feet of the ceiling was actually Sheetrock, and I was under it.
Well, I reasoned with myself that a mechanical pencil is tougher than a wooden pencil, so if I threw it hard enough, it would probably stick in the Sheetrock. If it didn’t, then my buddy sitting next to me would laugh and he’d take the blame for it, which I found hilarious. Then I started thinking about what other people would think if they knew what I was thinking, which was even more hilarious to me. I was holding onto my desk trying to hold the laughter in. The professor noticed, but he kept teaching. I never threw the pencil.
#22 Leaving Class
When my college professor "tripped" his voice. We didn't even notice it at first because everyone was busy listening and taking notes but when a classmate sitting next to me tried to copy it, I lost it and burst out laughing. The teacher thought I was making fun of him and got mad. I couldn't even explain to him because I was just laughing the whole time. He had to ask me to leave his class because I just couldn't stop.
#23 Nervous Laughter
As a kid, I was a nervous laugher. Any kind of stressful situation, like being scolded, I couldn’t help but laugh nervously. One time, I was sitting on the bus and turned to the side with my leg in the aisle. I was talking to somebody and a lady was walking backwards down the aisle, taking roll or something. I didn’t even see her coming and she tripped on my (tiny child) leg and fell hard because she couldn’t catch herself. All I could do was laugh and almost cry. Later I was talked to by the principal and they were angry because the lady told them I did it on purpose and laughed at her afterwards. All I could do was laugh.
#24 A Gruesome Story
The first job out of college, I worked for a global corporation. During the news hire orientation, the HR manager was talking about the dangers of the job and how you can pass away if you’re not vigilant of you, your surroundings, and the crew. She told a gruesome story about an employee passing away and this guy I met and vibed with would look at me whenever the HR manager mentioned mistakes that led to the passing of the employee. She saw and afterwards nearly fired me because she thought I was laughing at her story and not taking it seriously. I was in her bad books for months.
#25 Paying My Respects
A friend of my dad's passed away and the guy was well-known for having a pretty good, dark sense of humor. He'd joked about having a "get well soon" balloon tied around his wrist during his funeral, but no one followed through with it. My dad wanted to do it, but my mom, wisely, forbade it. There were a lot of people at this thing and not all of them would have seen the funny side. As we were walking along to pay our respects, my dad leaned over and said, "You know, I don't think he's really gonna be getting well anytime soon." I had to stifle laughter while paying my respects and it was hard.
#26 Really Not Proud
This crazy seventh-day Adventist lady I used to know was upset that her kids were getting bullied. Someone had punched her son in the junk but the way she described it was “they punched him in the genital.” I had to pretend something was in my eye and go to the bathroom because I couldn’t stop laughing. I’m really not proud of that one.
#27 A Little Giggle
Before I was a teacher, I used to be a special education aide. I’d support a handful of second-grade students in their classrooms at different points throughout the day. On MLK Day, the teacher showed a clip of his “I have a dream” speech. But, I have ADD, love The Onion , and my mind tends to wander, so my brain drifted to their version, “I had a really weird dream last night,” and a little giggle escaped. It was bad.
#28 Stupid the Unicorn
I was in elementary school and the teacher was talking about a guy who was trying to take his life by a gas leak. He just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up. He woke up and went to the basement to figure out why he wasn't gone yet. However, this man was smart and knowing that turning on light bulbs would set the gas off, he chose a different method of illumination… lighting a candle. They figured this out by the candle sticking out of his forehead when they found his body in the rubble. My thought was something along the lines of, "Hey kids, I'm Stupid the Unicorn," which I found hilarious. The girl in class who's uncle it was... less so.
PXfuel
#29 Scolding Me
Spoiler alert. We watched Midsommar in the theatre. I laughed when they jumped off the cliff and we saw a close up of the head. I also laughed in Hereditary when the phone pole scene happened. My fiance scolded me but I told her I think the reason I was laughing is how well Ari subjects your expectations and the way he goes about shocking you.
#30 Soggy Bread
This happened at Sunday School during First Communion practice. I was seven years old. We were learning how to "eat the body" and "drink the blood" of Christ when I got a little impatient. I decided to dip the bread into my cup of grape juice and watched in horror as the bread became a soggy purple mess in my cup.
In order to hide the evidence, I tossed that soggy blob along with all of the juice on the floor. At that exact moment, our teacher asked us to bow our heads in prayer. As we all looked down to pray, many of the other kids in class noticed the blob on the floor and looked around for the culprit. Me, with a grin on my face gave it away and I started laughing mid-prayer.
The teacher did not take kindly to my rude interruption of the Lord's prayer and asked me if I thought praying was funny. I said, "No ma'am, I'm sorry" and tried to hold it together. But 10 seconds into starting the prayer for the second time, I burst out laughing again. At this point, it was uncontrollable and I was kicked out of class. Let's just say I had some extra Hail Marys and Our Fathers to perform later that night.
#31 Hosing Her Down
When my mom soiled her pants last year. She went to the doctor for bowel prep and somehow they failed to tell her that they gave her a super-strong laxative for the scope. I got a frantic call from my father that afternoon asking if I could come over because she made a mess in her car, in the driveway, down her legs and in her shoes. Of course, she was wearing white shorts. She was clearly distraught, crying and embarrassed. She stood behind the house in her soiled underwear and shirt, too shocked to move.
Here’s my 52-year-old dad and myself (24) trying to comfort her but it was just too funny. Both of us burst out laughing while she was bawling. But to come in the yard and see my dad hosing off the driveway and the side of the car from explosive diarrhea was too funny at the time. He also had to tell me he hosed her off too. I felt so bad, but it was hilarious.
#32 The Dirtiest Look
My teacher was confiding in our class about his addictions when he was in high school. My friend and I got super uncomfortable and started laughing. This was in a class of nine kids, so it was really obvious. He stopped talking for a very painful second to give us the dirtiest look and things were super awkward between us for a while after that. I kind of wished he had just yelled at us and had it be over with.
#33 Display Case
I was a teenager (I think 15 at the time). My mom and her toxic (now ex) boyfriend took me to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. One of the displays in the main room showed a rifle stood up between two boots. Being a dumb child and not knowing what the actual meaning of it was, I thought it looked kind of silly and started laughing at it. That's one of the moments that comes to me as I'm trying to sleep at night.
#34 Amazing Grace
At my wife’s grandfather’s funeral, a woman sang a completely tone-deaf, broken version of “Amazing Grace.” Her voice was somehow gravely and ear-piercing at the same time. My wife and I sat there, just squeezing each other’s hands as hard as we could to hold back the laughter. Thank goodness we actually managed it.
#35 A Family Joke
My grandma passed away at 94. For years, she warned everyone that she could go at any minute (she was quite healthy for her age). One Christmas, she told me which reading I would do at her funeral. One Easter, when my uncle from the other side of the family was telling her about his 95-year-old mother, my grandma told him the government should just eliminate everyone at 95 and get it over with. So her impending passing was a family joke for over 10 years.
At her funeral (which she had planned every detail of years before) they played "I'll Fly Away.” It’s a really dancy, joyous song about passing away. It was so her. My sister and I made eye contact and after that, we lost it. We tried to cover our mouths and faces but our shoulders were shaking, so my cousins behind us thought we were crying and tried to comfort us. Eventually, we were laughing so hard that we cried, so it evened out.
#36 Mush Pants
A buddy of mine tried to toot on the pew in church and unloaded a dump truck load into his pants by accident. This was during a quiet moment and I was absolutely howling with laughter. He’s still one of my best friends. To this day, if we have a disagreement, I’ll always say something like, “Oh, is that so, mush pants?”
Pxfuel
#37 Wait Outside
My family had to go to family counseling. One time, my sister and I were asked what we wanted to get out of being there. I said that I wanted my parents to stop arguing and me saying that turned into an argument between them. As soon as I looked at my sister, we both starting laughing and the counselor asked us to wait outside.
#38 Super Embarrassing
I had a pediatrician with a stutter. I had known this guy for years since I was very young. I knew he had a serious stutter. I was almost too old to go to a pediatrician, being 16 or 17 and something he said just caught me. I started cracking up. My dad was there, super embarrassing for both of us. I wasn't trying to be mean, but I just couldn't stop.
#39 The Worst Time
In a doctor’s waiting room. A woman came out holding the hand of her small daughter who had a cast on her arm. The mom suddenly dropped to the floor and started violently convulsing, having a seizure while still holding the kid’s hand. No idea why, but my first thought was “this is the worst time you could ever laugh. Do not laugh or everyone will hate you forever.” I immediately lost it. I managed to do it somewhat quietly and hid my face behind my book, while my mom was mortified and started pinching my leg to make me stop.
#40 Cracking Voices
Seventh grade. For some mysterious reason, the geniuses who decided on course content had the wonderful idea to choose this year, where most boys' voices are cracking, to have music exams. We sang alone in front of the whole class karaoke-style. Needless to say, I completely lost it when a classmate with a particularly uneven voice came up. I had to see myself out because I couldn't stop. I still feel bad for the guy.
#41 First Physical
My very first time getting a physical. I was 16 and didn’t realize I was gonna get my member touched. The doctor told me to pull down my pants and I realized what was happening. And as soon as my junk was exposed, my body didn’t know what to do. I just started laughing harder and harder until I was straight up howling with laughter. I don’t think my face has been that red since.
#42 Loud Screaming
My brother was in an accident one time. He rolled the truck he was driving and was thrown from the vehicle. They took him to the hospital and was working on him when I got there. Thankfully, he wasn’t hurt too bad, but he did just about get his ear ripped off. They had him pretty drugged up and he was in and out of semiconscious.
I was standing at his bedside, thankful that he was still alive, when they said they were going to try to clean up his ear a little. I think whatever they put on his ear must have had some alcohol in it or something that burned. When they stuck the gauze to his ear, he opened his eyes as wide as they would go, looked me in the eyes, and screamed as loud as he possibly could right in my face. Mom made me leave the room when I couldn’t control my laughter.
#43 San Francisco Bike Ride
I awkward laugh. Like, when I’m nervous or scared, I laugh. My sister and I were biking in San Francisco on vacation and she got her tire stuck in a tram line, fell over and potentially broke her wrist. I couldn't stop laughing. I was apologizing, but still crying from laughing so hard. She started to laugh with me, though.
#44 Not Amused
When my husband and I were in training for a care job, they showed us a video about the thalidomide scandal. There was a guy with no feet and my hubby said to me, "I wonder what size shoes he takes." I couldn't control my laughter and neither could the rest of the carers training with us. Some of us had to be excused from the room to regain our composure. The lady training us wasn't amused.
#45 How Are You?
I used to work at Radio Shack back in the day. One time, this decrepit old lady came in and walked up to the counter I was at. I asked, "Hey, how are you doing?" She just, out of nowhere, replied, "Well, my bones are disintegrating.” I didn’t know what to do so I just instantly laughed super hard, right in her face.
#46 Native Tongue
When I was about 11 I, along with my twin and an acquaintance of ours, was at our friend's house for dinner. When our friend's mother said a prayer in her native tongue, our acquaintance just lost it and burst out laughing. While I didn't find the situation funny, I started laughing too. I was highly embarrassed. Unsurprisingly, none of us were invited to dinner again.
#47 BMI Measurement
There was a health test machine in the canteen of my old workplace that would measure your BMI, blood pressure, weight, etc. I went to use it and my rotund friend tagged along to use it for the first time. When it came to measuring his BMI, imagine the slide whistle sound effect as the arrow on the reader went all the way to the end and into the “obese” section. I'm not mean enough to laugh at that, it was the crestfallen look on his face and the shocked and whimpering, "I'm obese?" that made me crack up laughing inappropriately.
#48 My Name A-Jeff
I was at a classmate's funeral. I didn’t know him much, but I wanted to go anyways for support. The funeral director got up to the podium and started the ceremony to introduce himself. The first thing he said was, "My name is Jeff." If you’re familiar with that meme, yeah. Him saying that was not super great for me
#49 Gaming Session
Our first year of marriage, my wife had a really long day and was venting to me on the phone on her drive home. She always worked late, so I was always on X-box live and was in the middle of a game with my best friend. He can make me lose my mind laughing easily. Right as her story about her terrible day started, my buddy screamed in my ear, “Charizard!” as one of the flamethrowers toasts me. I just start howling laughing. Somehow, I’m still married.
Pikrepo
#50 Out of Nowhere
A woman with two young children was walking in front of me and my friend. The older toddler just faceplanted onto the ground. No tripping or anything, just falling over out of nowhere. I desperately tried to hold in my laughter as we passed the mother who was trying to console her crying child. I felt bad but just couldn't stop laughing, partially because I knew that I looked like a complete jerk. The child stopped crying soon after, so at least know that he didn't hurt himself too badly.
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