nilschristianson.com Blog

Why do we laugh when people fall down? Why is Chevy Chase the best at falling down?

Theory 1. Low self esteem/sociopath

There are some who would say:
“That’s cruel, I would never laugh!”, “You’re just laughing because you have low self esteem”.

Theory 2. Seeing justice/kharma effected.

In fact, it’s even funnier when morally self righteous people fall. Or those that deserve it in some way. Like the evil teacher lecturing while the overhead screen falls off the wall and hits her in the head. (Later she turned out to be cool… though perhaps something knocked loose or into place after the smiting from the cosmic universe)

Theory 3. As a sympathetic release.

People laugh as an expression of their own pain in past circumstances. The laughter is an affirmation of their personal success at getting over whatever similar hurts they have felt as a result of their own adverse experiences.

Why am I laughing? Which theory applies?
Theory 1 does not apply if I am not a sociopath. Though probably impossible to self-diagnose, I submit that an empirical conclusion on my suitability for interaction in society can be deduced based on my ability to meet 3 criteria:
1. Stay out of trouble as a result of violent/negligent crime
2. Form and maintain relationships beyond convenience/benefit
3. Corollary to 2; to be able to find someone to marry me- how could you be married to someone who had no feelings for your well-being?

Theory 3 is perhaps the usual reason for me to laugh at other’s misfortune. If I see someone hit their head on a doorway I’ll immediately determine seriousness to decide when to laugh based on the possibility that they’ll:
1. Be upset if I laugh
2. Hear me(There can be repercussions).
Afterwards I like to help them up and give them a play by play so they can laugh too.

Theory 2 only applies in certain situations. In my case a great example, and the event that spurred this blentry (web + log + entry = blentry, not blubmission) was that after being reamed all day for not finishing a few tasks outside of my normal duties, I received a phone call from the offending co-worker that my car must have been leaking water… he had parked behind me, noticed on his way out and wanted to mention in case I was doomed to engine failure.

He knew it was water since, at night he could see “wetness” in the concrete, though not discern it’s viscosity. The next two suitable tests to determine which particular fluid (power steering fluid, brake fluid, windshield washing fluid, oil, gas or coolant) would be daub a finger in it, to determine viscosity, and then smell to check for telling odors.

I neglected to mention on the phone that I had, on leaving work, realized that I urgently needed to urinate. On a dark, un-peopled street, I opened the car door aiming underneath the car to avoid being seen from a distance.

The image I had of my co-worker both feeling, and then smelling my piss was more than satisfactory. Theory 2 applied in spades.

Finally, a special case: Complete Ridiculousness in a special situation; Bodily Injury for Entertainment.

We laugh when we see Will Farrell jump onto a Christmas tree. We also laugh when the guys on Jack-Ass throw themselves down embankments in a shopping cart festooned with a mascot midget. These chuckles, though similar are in fact based on a person with different behavior patterns and so are disqualified.

For good movies in this vein:
Anything with Chris Farley and 90’s era Saturday Night Live Cast Members
Looney Tunes
Chevy Chase
Peter Sellers

Top Speed of 4:

When I go to lunch, I sometimes see women who work in one of three other nearby factories out on walks. Actually, I see them in the morning on the way in too but throughout the day really, whenever I’m outside.

I can tell they are factory workers by the clumping, and the outfits. Also I would want to go on a walk for my breaks too…

But anyway. These women are always walking. In fact, recently, there has been an escalation- many have begun taking jogging breaks.

I chuckled to myself as I watched a herd of motherly immigrant factory workers jog past a fully outfitted and tech-bedecked super runner looking guy. He pretended not to notice them in their sweatpants, jeans, tunics and costume jewelry chugging past him.

Forensic Boobies Dot COM!

Some of you have probably seen the movie Garden State with Natalie Portman and Zach Braff. Or Branf. Too lazy to verify his name on imdb.com right now.

Remember when she says something like “Blah blah blah Loopy Doo…see no one’s ever said that before, I just made a unique noise; you’ve just witnessed history.”

Ok. So I have something in common with NP. No not the noise doofus…that was unique REMEMBER?? When I was younger traveling in the woods with my brother and father in Minnesota, I remember thinking to myself as I hauled approximately 10 kajillions of pounds of totally non-technical, least new and innovative,in fact, possibly the heaviest possible camping equipment, that I was maybe walking on some portion of the earth that had never experienced the foot of humankind.

Then I thought: “duh. I’m on a trail… odds are like zero.” So later, answering the call of the wild (not procreation, silly; pooping!) way off the trail I thought “now I’m for certain walking where no one has…” and to commemorate that achievement, I pooped on that hallowed ground. I never could prove conclusively to myself that that thought was unique…there could have been some proto-human thousands of years ago that happened to have broken that spot on the ground’s virginity before me.
until now! An unfortunate consequence of the way internet domains are registered is that companies make 36 hour (or something) temporary registrations that allow them to a.) hold the site name in case someone comes along wanting it who may potentially be willing to pay and b.)make money on click-through redirects to other sites. Naturally this requires massive numbers of webpages to be churned through to generate enough money for some squatter to justify sitting in front of his computer all day. And so… they register just about every possible combo imaginable. This is why when you type www.foogle.com you guaranteed hit a page (probably porn, like the infamous and now gone www.whitehouse.com) and not a “server not found” page.

This becomes a decent measure of success in uniqueness of a new idea…

So…. www.forensicboobies.com unless some caveman thought of it first.