Laughter 1: The innocent husband

Laughter 1: The innocent husband

I follow a lot of newspaper site on Facebook, such as The Economist, ABC, BBC, Fox News, The San Francisco Globe, etc. Some of the posts were news-worthy, some are just plain misery to read, and some are out straight silly and comical. A few days ago, I came across an article titled “Woman films her husband after he wakes up from wisdom teeth removal surgery” on The San Francisco Globe. Since I knew that The San Francisco Globe is a page full of non-sense and comical videos, I clicked the article, hoping for something funny to stir up my day.

The embedded main picture before the video starts was of a man, about thirty years old, half-conscious with his dull eyes half opened, holding three strips of tissue in his mouth. This scene reminded me of my scary childhood memories when I had to go to the dentist and came out with a mouthful of cotton balls. “It’s going be hilarious” – I think. The video starts with the woman’s asking “Hey honey can you wake up?” He answered with his eyes closed: “It’s my lips. It feels like super glue” and went on “… I like skateboard.” My wife was laughing and asking “What do you think they should give you for doing so good?” And he said: “Skateboard” again. His honest and innocent answers made me giggle for a while. In this case, I agree with the incongruity theory about humor. The surprising factor in his irrelevant answer to his wife’s questions violated my expectation about typical answers a thirty-year-old man could have produced. As I giggled, I felt bad for this guy at the same time. He was in discomfort after the surgery and certainly still under the effect of anesthesia. However, his helpless situation only increased the comical factor. Those who follow the superiority theory may ask whether I was giggling because I felt superior to him. No, I would say. I was entertained not because I had a cruel heart and enjoyed seeing people half-conscious being filmed. I was entertained because I was surprised with his surprisingly irrelevant answers and I knew he was under no danger since it was just a mini surgery to remove a wisdom tooth and he understood perfectly what his wife was asking him.

The wife continued to asked questions and laughed at the same time, which partly contributed to my laughter.  Because laughter is contagious; once we hear another person laugh, we will have the tendency to simulate the action. After about 3 minutes, the conversation between the spouses took an interesting turn.

- Wife: You are going to go home and sleep for six hours. I don’t think we are going to the movie tonight, sweetie!”

- Husband: Are you going to take advantage of me? …I know you’ll probably take my clothes off.

To this point I busted out in uncontrollable loud laughter. This twist of conversation once again confirms my belief in the incongruity theory. I laughed out loud because never in my life had I heard a husband raising concern about whether his wife would take advantage of him when he slept, considering the two of them were in good relationship. It was odd how a man, still lying in the hospital’s bed with his eyes closed and his mouth full of cotton balls, showed worries about what his wife may do to him when he sleeps.

At the end of the day, comical videos like this one are good sources of entertainment. They brighten up my day as they strike benign laughter and help release stress. More importantly, these videos are of real, daily life and not staged; thus, they reinforce my belief in positive, humorous incidents in life.   

(Feel free to serve yourself with the video I mentioned above here: http://sfglobe.com/2015/01/08/woman-films-her-husband-after-he-wakes-up-from-his-wisdom-teeth-removal-surgery/?src=fbfan_30731)