(Social Blunder) Laughing at wrong times: 3 examples
In power dynamics, there are many ways that laughing can disempower you.
But in general social dynamics, there is a far simpler basic:
- Avoid laughing when the topic is about someone's suffering or death
When you laugh at wrong times, it comes across as weird.
Or like you're so uncomfortable with the topic, that you desperately need to relieve the pressure.
See 3 examples:
(talking about a Shaman who raped a woman, unable to defend, while she was under the influence of halucinogetic drugs)
Charlie: this such an obvious no eheheh (...) it's a spiritual high that people can only imagine and... It's not enough eheheh still doing that stuff (ie.: raping defenseless women under the influence)
The laugh is terribly out of place.
Maybe he was laughing about how "obvious" the no-no was, which was indeed so obvious that didn't need an explanation.
But the laugh was also obviously out of place.
Charlie: if you just call someone stupid which today it's OK to call someone stupid, what if that person goes on and commits suicide ehehe (goes on with more smiles on topics about murder)
Sometimes laughter can be used to display superiority about one's own logical reasoning.
The laughter is as if to say:
I'm proving the other argument/person so blatantly wrong that it's laughable
It's still not a high-quality way of behaving though.
And the laughter is still terribly out of place when you're dealing with a topic such as suicide.
Charlie: what's interesting for me, a train wreck is more fun to watch (laughs) you know what I mean, like I get rubberneck when I drive by car accidents (laughs)
To be honest, sometimes I feel like laughing at an inappropriate time.
What I do is cover my mouth to prevent the laughter, but it does come across as breaking the flow sometimes.
I suppose the preventive measure is to get into a serious mode for serious topics.
I don't think this is the case for Charlie.
But some people laugh to release tension for uncomfortable topics though it doesn't come across the right way.