Let me make it perfectly clear that I never eavesdrop – I research material for future writing assignments. I was doing just that one day in English 101 at
“Dude, did you study for the test?”
“No, couldn’t. Cat kept me up all night.”
“Bummer, dude. What happened?”
“Well, things were going normally until the cat walked into the living room, his head spun 360° and he announced “WE ARE LEGION!”
“Dude, I hate it when that happens.”
I shoved my fist into my mouth to keep from having a giggle fit. It wasn’t just the mental image of the possessed cat that set me off so much as the completely calm tones of voices both of the guys used.
Every now and then throughout my life, this memory suddenly breaks through the surface of my consciousness like a feeding whale and then sinks back into the mysterious depths from which it came. In the time of its breaching, I am convulsed with giggle fits.
What’s Going On Here?
Giggle fits happen to everybody at the most inconvenient times possible – such as sitting in a business meeting, jury duty, taking your SATS (or A levels in England) or getting an MRI. They’re suddenly triggered for no reason whatsoever and will not go away until you’ve made a complete bonehead of yourself.
Perhaps giggle fits are our subconscious trying to get us to relax in a tense situation. Ever notice how your dog will yawn constantly when everyone in the room seems upset? The dog is trying to get everyone else to relax and thus calm down. Perhaps our inappropriately timed giggle fits are like that dog yawning to get us to not take ourselves so seriously.
When you feel a giggle fit coming on, you instinctively try to suppress it, don’t you? We’re adults, gosh darn it, doing Really Important Stuff. It is Not Right that you are the only one in the room giggling.
Repressing the urge to giggle never works, does it? My advice – get out of the room as soon as humanly possible – fake throwing up if you have to – and run out of earshot, then laugh yourself into exhaustion. You’ll feel a lot better, almost cleansed in a way, then you can return to the room to where you can resume being politely quiet.
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