Tension Through Laughter

My suitemate rarely goes out on the weekends.  She is perhaps the most efficient and no-nonsense person I know.  So when she came back around 3 in the morning one Saturday, I and the rest of my suitemates were naturally curious as to where she had been and what had happened that had kept her out so late.  When we asked her how her night had been, she just turned to us, said “Oh nothing” and then turned away and smirked.

Now we all knew she is a very independent and private person, yet we were all in shock.  If she had just told us “Oh nothing” and left it at that, we probably would have all been cool with her.  However, that smirk just about set us over the edge.  The way she used laughter conveyed to us, not exactly superiority, but something along that line.  In just a single smirk, she was able to convey to us that she had an amazing night while that we were not privileged to hear about.  It almost seemed as though she was looking down on us.  In her mind, there was no way our nights could have exceeded hers and was able to communicate this very effectively.

What is even more interesting is that it would not have been socially acceptable for her to say all these thoughts out loud to us.  However, was her smirk really any different?  It still told us all she was thinking whether she meant it to or not.  Her small laugh, may have been pleasurable to her, but it was not well received by others.  Instead, it created animosity in the room and raised the tension to a level that mere words could not have managed.

Invite Only

            Ever been in a situation where you know without a doubt that you are on the outside of some interesting and exciting event?  Where you can clearly define a boundary between you and the group partaking in a secret act?  Well, today I was the unfortunate outsider in this scenario.

            I was enjoying a nice lunch by myself at the end of a table, completely unaware of who else was sitting around me.  My silent meal was then punctured by the loud cawing and cackling of three girls only a few places down from my seat.  Now previously, I (and most likely everyone else having lunch at that moment) had not given them a second thought or care.  And they probably would have gone unnoticed if not for their obnoxious, uncontrolled outburst.  Let me clarify for a moment to impress upon you just how loud this laugh was.  There was nothing subtle about it, such as a giggle that gradually manifests itself into a hearty laugh.  In fact, if there ever was a perfect antonym to subtle, these girls nailed it.

            But let us turn to the matter at hand:  the girls laugh, and invariably, every person pauses as all heads turn to look at this select faction.  For that brief second, everyone shares in the same act.  All, including the three girls, are interested in what had caused this extravagant laughter.  Yet, even though the girls are sharing their laughter with the public, they are at the same time excluding others from participating in it.  In this way, the girls use laughter to act as a social restriction.  Those of us who do not laugh clearly demonstrate the divide between ourselves and the three girls.  Only those who are lucky or special enough to be allowed in their circle would have access to the joy they are now experiencing.  Through laughter, they portray their happiness of being a member of the focal group.  For this reason laughter acts as a means of thankfulness:  the girls are laughing at their fortune of being one of the “elite” so to speak and not a member of the “ordinary lunchers” who are missing out on such a funny story or joke.

          As I said before, without the noise, they would not have made an impact on anyone’s lunchtime.  Instead, as I made a slight breach of social etiquette and eavesdropped on the table behind me, I heard a couple wondering what could have been so funny.  I smiled, as I myself had been thinking that very same thing, and wondered how many similar conversations were occurring at other tables.  The girls most likely did not realize it, but they had created a social tier within the lunch room consisting of those who laughed with them and those who wished they had.