Laughing Experience #2

After writing my first laughing blog, I decided to try to be more conscientious of the times that I found myself in a fit of laughter. Since then, I have discovered something rather unexpected. Lately, I have found myself spending a lot of time working on group projects. The year is coming to an end, and when two of your five classes focus primarily on semester-long group projects, that should be expected. The time that I spend working on my group project is typically stressful, especially recently as the projects have been culminating. For whatever reason, during these times of stress, something that would normally be brushed off as a small joke is laughed at in great lengths. At these times, all members of the group are subject to fits of laughter, even though the joke or occurrence was small and wouldn't normally be funny. An example of this happened last week when my group and I were working on our Foundations in Business Annual Report. We had been in the library for a couple hours and were definitely stressed out. At this time, one of the members of the group loaded up a website of a pug seemingly licking the computer screen (http://songdrops.com/pug-licking-screen-clean/). Under other circumstances, I don't think I would have found this extraordinarily funny. However, when we saw this website, all of us in the group started laughing for quite some time. It was the type of laughter that occurs in groups and builds off of one another. I experienced another situation similar to this in my Business Information Systems group project. I tended to be more stressed with this group because I felt more personal pressure to complete the project. One night, my group was working on completing our Access Database, which meant a lot of meticulous work. Once again, something small caused my group members to begin laughing hysterically. I remember I didn't laugh as much as them, because we were in a small computer lab where other people were working and I didn't want to be too loud. But the laughter was there, and it helped us get through the rest of the project. I think that this type of laughter plays in to Relief theory, but not in the same way as other instances. It wasn't relief in the sense of a joke that was built upon a serious situation before the punch line. However, I think it was relief in the sense that the tension had been high for a while, and then something relatively funny happened, which allowed a sense of relief and ultimately laughter. I think these type of situations show how important laughter is in people's life. These type of stressful situations could go in complete different directions if it weren't for laughter. When we were working and things began to get tense, individual's tempers could get the best of them and anger could be lashed out at other group members. Luckily, humor infiltrated the situation and ultimately gave the group work a breath of fresh air. Laughter can be a useful tool for stressful situations because of its ability to cause everybody to take a step back from what they are doing. The members of the group may not realize what is going on, but laughing can result in a large release of stress. This will allow for people to calm down and refocus on what they are trying to accomplish. This was evident in my group projects. I truly believe that these projects would have been many times more difficult to complete had it not been for our laughter bouts that we experienced. I found it interesting that I first realized the importance of laughter while enrolled in Lit and Civ class. I think this class has caused me to analyze laughter and humor in all situations where it is applicable. This has led me to some revelations that will be useful throughout my life, especially in situations of high stress.