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Laughing at 'the wrong time'

I always used to laugh at inappropriate things, it's either that or I would just roll my eyes in plain boredom and wait for a better conversation unless someone wants my opinion. I probably still do laugh at things at the wrong time but I have a script where I just say that 'I thought of something funny in my head and couldn't help it' or 'it's a private joke' if people are giving me weird looks. If it gets really bad and I trust the person then I will say that I have a medical condition that I can't control the times when I'm laughing, it just happens.

I've never been able to control my crying, laughing is easier because I can try to focus on what I'm trying to understand if someone is speaking about. I have been uninvited to some parties over it when I was younger but it really didn't bother me that much since they were stuck up anyways.

My mind does have a habit of wondering and day dreaming alot but I do enjoy reading books. The classic books are my favorites though I have gotten into the habit of reading more comic books because it is easier to get through the pages then trying to follow a long winded plot (more of the reason why I stopped reading Count of Monte Cristo, it's a great book but the narrator just goes on and on for 2 chapters on one part of a story).
 
My worst memory of laughing inappropriately was a fiasco in my Grade 12 Pre-Calculus class.

Preliminarily, I must sincerely state that I love cats. I'm gentle and affectionate with them, lie down on the floor with them, sleep with them, and nuzzle them the way they nuzzle me. You could not bribe me to step on one's tail.

Returning to reminiscence, my Pre-Calculus teacher digressed from instruction into a story where she and her husband were vacationing in some rustic retreat near a lake. By paraphrasing with reasonable accuracy, I recall her saying with an eager stolidity: "My husband'd pick up the cats by their tails, spin 'em around over his head and biff 'em off the wharf."

Eruption. Statements like this are my weakness; they are so egregious and absurd that I guffaw. Upon periodically recalling the words, the cachinnations return, albeit weaker with each iteration as I strive to contain them.

I mentally shudder at the onlookers' grimaces: those ones that appear to condemn me as "a horrid, cruel person". Nearly crying, I'm frantically struggling to repress the laughter that belies my immaculate love of cats.

That was a very poignant day. Fearful of recurrences, I developed a method that helps me truncate the inappropriate laughter. I do concede that it requires focusing my energy heavily upon the repression, enough to mutually exclude the laughter repression and any conversation. Whenever I begin to laugh, I sternly mutter to myself: "I am alive, I am safe, I am alive, I am safe, I am alive, I am safe..." which inculcates a focus on survival, eclipsing hilarity until I can discharge the laughter in solitude.
 
This thread reminds me of Dr Hibbert from The Simpsons.

I can't seem to find a quote with a google search. The Jazz player "Bleeding Gums Murphy" said something to the effect that he has a long lost brother and heard he went on to become a doctor, he used to laugh at the most inappropriate times. To which Dr. Hibbert is standing in the room and laughs. Neither man puts two and two together.
 
Do you ever find yourselves laughing in situations you shouldn't?
I have been doing this my whole life. It never really bothered me, until recently.
Let me explain. I was talking to this NT teacher recently, who doesn't know I'm on the spectrum, and she told me that she has this student who is autistic.
She told me "it's really creepy, he suddenly laughs out of nowhere and I don't know what to think". I tried to explain her it's not something to be creeped out, but I'm not sure she changed her mind.
This made me feel bad, both for the student and me.
So, lately, I've been trying to justify myself when laughing.
I usually find something funny to say about the situation I'm in, although it's not the thing I laugh about. It works fine. But I'm not sure it's the right thing to do.
What do you do in these cases?
 
Very rarely in my own case. Though from hearing from others here over the years, it seems to be a behavior relative to being on the spectrum.

Unintentionally funny things...definitely prove to be awkward at times. Not really sure how one can go about limiting such things though. Especially if they happen spontaneously. :confused:
 
VioletHaze_03 said:
I find pointing out the funny thing works pretty well, if they're not an easily entertained crowd i would just apologize.
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In many cases, it's something really irrelevant or embarrassing, or I just remember something funny we said earlier. So I can't say those things!
Thanks for replying!
 
Ah yes, i have a lot of those. Once i creeped out a bunch of people when i started laughing during some indie horror movie. I was just picturing the monster wearing a long, flowing elven dress and carrying one of those pan flutes. Random thoughts can sometimes be pretty hilarious, and if you just make it sound not too weird, people probably won't be too creeped out.
 
I find lots of things funny that others don't and can't really explain why. Can you just say it reminded you of a funny situation in the past or a funny image popped up in your head?
 
I do it a lot more than I should.. it gets me in trouble.

I have a bad habit of cracking up whenever someone is in my face trying to tell me something serious, although I think that's just being nervous.

I can laugh at anything though so.
 
I do the same. It has to do with spoken language, for me.
A person I know is passionate about a certain subject. When they go on and on about it, I have to sternly remind myself before I start finding it funny, to turn off the laugh response. It's liinked directly to me having this habit of sticking people in category-boxes in order to understand how to deal with them. If they by talking fill their box up with similar or duplicate pictures then pretty soon it's just funny to me. I'm weird. The stern reminder only works when I know ahead of time how someone is going to talk.
Laughing and humor both function as positive payoff for me, in situations which otherwise are kinda stressful or even miserable.
 
LucyPurrs said:
Can you just say it reminded you of a funny situation in the past or a funny image popped up in your head?
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Yeah, that's what I used to say and apparently, that's pretty much what the student tells this teacher I was talking to. She said "he just tells me he remembered something". I've no idea why this would be creepy, but then again I've no idea about anything NTs say!
 
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I laugh a lot in movies, for example Game of Thrones...there was only one scene I did not find funny. I think it is a coping mechanism at times, not to let the too sad or scary things touch me, unless it is absolutely necessary, for example, in order to feel empathy. But I don't want to feel sad for something made up.
 
Oh, yes this happens to me all the time! Sometimes I am watching a movie or program with others and find myself laughing hysterically as they sit with blank, puzzled faces. And then, those blank puzzled expressions make me laugh even harder. Afterward I sometimes feel foolish and a bit regretful because no one else found it funny.

An example: I was watching an episode of the older version of the mystery series, "Miss Marple." There was a scene where some people were sitting at a table in a tea room and a woman came over to their table. She said, "May I join you?" But something about the way she thrust her head forward and the overly friendly expression on her face just set me off!
 
Was attending a wake, and one minute my spouse was beside me and then he was missing. I saw him through a window running around outside in the cemetery. I walked after him and discovered him sitting on a bench, laughing. Asked him what was funny; 'people's faces when they're crying, they screw them up and distort them, and they make me want to laugh.'
I've not been to any kind of wake or funeral since, where people's crying faces didn't make me want to laugh, I have to cover my mouth so I won't burst out laughing. He's right, people do look funny when they cry, I look funny when I cry.
 
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Ellie.s said:
Yeah, that's what I used to say and apparently, that's pretty much what the student tells this teacher I was talking to. She said "he just tells me he remembered something". I've no idea why this would be creepy, but then again I've no idea about anything NTs say!
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I am puzzled too; I mean, why creepy?
 
Mia said:
Was attending a funeral, and one minute my spouse was beside me and then he was missing. This was the wake, where everyone sits around and some cry. I saw him through a window running around outside in the cemetery. I walked after him and discovered him sitting on a bench, laughing. Asked him what was funny; 'people's faces when they're crying, they screw them up and distort them, and they make me want to laugh.'
I've not been to any kind of wake or funeral since, where people's crying faces didn't make me want to laugh, I have to cover my mouth so I won't burst out laughing. He's right, people do look funny when they cry.
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I find two things about people crying; first, sometimes I can't tell if they are laughing or crying, and second, they can look funny even though I am sympathetic to the fact that they are crying. Also, the sound of people laughing can be extremely funny to me.
 
This happens to me often. Maybe it’s a perk of having a delightfully rich, engaging inner world. :) I don’t usually bother explaining myself, as it would “cost too many spoons,” and I haven’t harmed anyone.
 
Oh god! These comments made me laugh so hard!!!
You're all right. It must be some sort of mechanism to avoid sadness or any bad feeling.
I even laugh when I'm physically hurt.
 
Also, a major problem (at least in my country) is that math, physics and chemistry teachers are not required to take any pedagogic or psychology courses.
This teacher should know better. It's her job to know but it's not her fault that she doesn't.
 
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