Uncontrollable Laughter Incident #1

An incident of uncontrollable laughter occurred during my Business Law class with Dr. Lehman. Since this class is a two and a half hour night class, sometimes it feels as though it can drag on for a while. My best friend Anna and I luckily scheduled the class at the same time, so we always sit next to each other. Professor Lehman’s teaching methods include making up random examples and then asking the class how the law would apply. One example included a man named Jose. There is one girl in our class who always questions Dr. Lehman’s knowledge and teaching methods, even though this is her first experience of learning anything about United States law. When she was on one of her questioning rants, she was mentioning the example that Dr. Lehman was explaining. Since she misread his handwriting, she thought that Jose’s name was actually Josh. She asked a question regarding “Josh’s” injury. Even though this girl was right in the middle of her illogical rant, Dr. Lehman interrupted her with a half-giggle and said, “No, it’s Jose.”

Anna and I lost it right then and there, and we could not stop laughing for about ten minutes. Every time I looked back at Anna, we only laughed harder. I think the reason we laughed in the first place was because Dr. Lehman put this student in her place for being disrespectful. We laughed because this incident was part of Dr. Lehman’s personality; he always made remarks like this one. I always seems to laugh at moments when I am not supposed to, as is in this situation. It is disrespectful to start uncontrollably laughing when a professor is speaking, but usually only makes me laugh harder because it is uncommon. This experience goes along with the incongruity theory. I also think that Anna and I laughed because it was such a tense moment in the classroom. No one else was speaking except for this student and the professor. After learning about the relief theory, I believe that we started to laugh because the situation was awkward, and we wanted to release the tension.

After the laughing incident, I think Anna and I now have a closer bond. That memory will forever give us something to talk about, and even laugh about more. Laughing seems to do that with many of my friends. As for the other students in the classroom, I think they appreciated that Anna and I broke the silence. I believe that everyone else in the room also felt uncomfortable because this girl was hounding our professor about a hypothetical situation. Many other students started to laugh when Anna and I did, as well. I believe no one likes when they feel as one person is being targeted, especially when that person is a respected professor who was once a prosecutor. The “It’s Jose” moment has made business law memorable and only brought Anna and me closer.