when you're laughing and they're not

[jdl22]

Last night I saw Dodgeball at the local $1.50 theater. It was much better than I thought it would be and was fairly stupid and ridiculous exactly as I expected. During the movie there was one scene where I was laughing hysterically throughout and the theater was otherwise silent except for a couple punch lines in the middle.

During the movie there is a scene where Vince Vaughn's character Pat is in a casino bar drinking having given up on the dodgeball tournament. Lance freaking Armstrong walks up to the bar and orders a water. He recognizes Pat from the broadcasts of the dodgeball tournament on ESPN 8 and says he's a big fan. Patrick says he's quitting the tournament and Armstrong responds that he had testicular, lung and brain cancer and came back to win the tour de france five times in a row (obviously shot before this summer) so Patrick's reason for quitting must be good. Anyway, I found the ridiculousness of this whole setup to be quite hilarious and was laughing the entire time. I can't exactly describe why other than that. I am a pretty big LA fan and have followed every tour he's won rather closely so maybe that's part of it. Not sure.

Another time this sort of thing happened was where a joke was made in a movie and I was the only one in the theater that got it. In A Beautiful Mind there is a scene where John Nash is in a bar and he walks up to a girl and says something like "Whatever smooth words I could say here to get you to sleep with me, could we just assume I've said all that and go?" The "let's assume that..." is the punch line for many math jokes. Being a math major as an undergrad I found that funny. Nobody else so much as chuckled.

This ever happen to anybody else?

[Duke]

People have different things in their minds depending on their experience. Give 2 people hallucinogenic substances. One guy might end up being fascinated by some birthmark on his arm that now appears to be a little bigger to him. Another guy might be laughing uncontrollably because in his head he had a couple huge matrices and screwed up computing the eigenvectors, or partway through a reduction he realizes that one of his matrices was singular. "Oh god I'm so stupid. I created a singular matrix! How am I going to figure out the time now? I guess that's what I get for using drugs!" And his buddy is still staring blankly at his arm.

It's the same idea. Your experiences are different than that of the other people, and you find humor where they can't because of it.

~D

[warlockjd]

Ever watched the Simpsons in the company of the not-so-intelligent?

I've noticed that we are always laughing at different times.

Also, HEY! I'm a guy like me!

[kerssens]

I was in There's Something About Mary and Chris Elliot was talking with Ben Stiller about marriage and children and he said "each day is better than the next"....my friend and I looked at each other and started laughing and then started laughing harder when we realized that nobody else picked up the joke in the theater

[Jimbo]

[ QUOTE ]
when we realized that nobody else picked up the joke in the theater


[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps they did yet did not find it at all funny. Just another perspective to consider.

Jimb

[astroglide]

awesome answer duke

[blackaces13]

[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps they did yet did not find it at all funny. Just another perspective to consider.

Jimb

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah. That joke was very subtle. I'd guess maybe 5% of the people who watch it catch that one on the first viewing.

BTW, I'm not saying that you're dumb if you miss it, just that it was slipped in. I missed it the first time.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I laugh at a lot of different things during movies. For example, My buddy and I were laughing our asses off at the ending of the new Exorcist movie, basically because it was so stupid.

FWIW, people have different sense of humor, so chalk it up to that.

[andyfox]

In Woody Allen's Manhattan, he and his girlfriend are riding in a taxi. He tells her that she looks so beautiful today that he can hardly keep his eye on the meter.

As an ex-New Yorker, I remember I laughed hysterically at that line. Watching the movie in Los Angeles, where nobody uses cabs, the line fell flat.

[scotnt73]

yep. my wife got mad at me the other night because we were watching a movie and a couple walked in and started up the stairs right next to us. the male missed the first step and fell down onto his coke and nachos face first(it wound up all over his chest). it was one of the funniest things ive seen in a while and my wife said it was childish of me. in all fairness i didnt point and laugh loudly. i just very quietly laughed for about 15 minutes.

[Gamblor]

I always used to think they just fucked up the line.

If it was a joke, I didn't find it funny.

And yes, I get that he meant to say "it's really good and i look forward to the next day" instead of "tomorrow will be worse than today was."

OTOH, I didn't like a lot of the lines in that movie - I found the situations and physical comedy much better.

"Have you seen my baseball?"

[turnipmonster]

that's a great line. I laughed out loud.

--turnipmonster

[ThaSaltCracka]

women don't have the same sense of humor. That is a funny story, I would have laughed too.

[Boris]

.

[WDC]

last week at Garden State, I was the only one laughing at the funeral scene and it was damn funny

It happened a lot when I first saw Driving Miss Daisy; I was laughing out loud throughout the entire movie; no one else thought it was funny