I grew up living with The Biggest Laugh In The Room so I don’t find those sorts of people off-putting. Some people aren’t nearly as lucky as I am and are always caught off guard when someone lets go with a huge and authentic belly laugh.
Tea gets spilled, mouthfuls of wine get spit across the table, ‘Frightened Face’ gets instantly pulled, and they’ll usually sprint for cover along with any cats who happened to get spooked by the sudden explosion.
People to whom this happens will usually pull themselves together quickly and reset, but for the rest of the afternoon/meal/cocktail party they’ll be a little PTSD-y whenever Big Laugh hits the decibel again.
My Mother was married to The Biggest Laugh In The Room and eventually was able to use my Father’s laugh as a tracking beacon to help her find him in any social situation. ANY social situation! She used to say that my Dad was always easy to find at a funeral because he’d be the only Big Laugh in the place. At a FUNERAL of all place!
The appreciation of humour was one of his Superpowers and every single person who knew my Dad knew this about him. Folks seemed to be drawn to him because of it. I wonder if his friends would take turns baiting him with puns or one-liners or simply funny voices, just to pick up the pace at funerals or during wedding services or, really anytime! He had no ‘guard at the door’ and would laugh impulsively if something struck him as ridiculous or as potentially ridiculously or if it reminded him of something else entirely that he suddenly remembered was ridiculous. And out it would come – a deep, loud, infectious laugh from the very middle of his body – and it would go on and on until he could finally get passed the funny bit and move forward.
When he was going through his misspent youth, he and my Uncle (who was my Dad’s same age) paid their money and sheepishly snuck into their first, and probably only, strip tease show. My Dad was apparently laughing so loudly and so often that my Uncle had to hustle him out! Whenever after my Uncle – or really anyone who had heard the story (and EVERYONE heard the story!!) – reminded him of the event, he would invariably lose it and start laughing all over again.
Sometimes he’d try to vocalize what it was that hit him so very very funny, but it was never truly THAT funny! The people around him would laugh and slap their knees and soon everyone would be wiping the tears out of their eyes from laughing long and hard, but in truth, it was my Dad’s genuine happiness and laughter all on its own that made people laugh. Most people who got caught in one of his laughing fits, laughed along with him – you couldn’t help it. He made laughing look so…..fun!
Many people knew the distinct sound of my Dad’s laugh. Some people could imitate him and took great pride in doing so. Some people judged their joke-telling ability by whether they could get my Dad to fall apart once they’d delivered the final punchline. Such triumph!!! To be fair, Dad could never see the punchline coming and it always caught him off guard so suddenly he would be at the mercy of a big whoop of laughter exploding out of him, and often, the joke-teller would just sit and watch him with a flush of success written all over their face.
He loved a good impersonation as much as he loved a joke, and several of his friends would regale him with impersonations of people he knew and plenty that he didn’t. He’d try to do impersonations too but would always fall apart in laughter before he could get the better part of it out. This was also funny and the whole room would laugh right along with him. Like I said, you couldn’t help it.
Being fruit that doesn’t fall far from the tree, I too have a very loud laugh, but mine isn’t the belly laugh of my Dad. Mine is more of a…..well, a bark. If I get surprised by something funny, I’ll send out a quick loud woof of a laugh before I get a chance to dial it down to something more socially pleasing. My Big Laugh will alarm small children and most dogs get startled into bewildered action.
On the other hand, my best friend has a Biggest Laugh In The Room. She has a name that is a bit tricky for some people to remember but once they describe her melodic, rich, from-her-toes laugh, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t recognize her! Her laugh brings joy and warmth to any situation, and you feel hugged and happy at the same time. She is pretty judicious about exactly what she lets ‘er rip for, but once her guard is down, oh man she’ll fill that room with laughter and other laughing people in a heartbeat!
Periodically we’ll get together with a bunch of our beloved friends from college days and the Big Laugh inside of her can hardly wait to get started! My own bark punctuates her all-in laughter, and the others add in their ‘ho, ho, ho’ing laughs, their higher pitched ‘e-e-e-e’ing laughs, and their sudden bursting whoops and HAHAHAs! We are without restraint in our enjoyment of laughing together and we definitely ruin the evenings of anyone trying to have a lovely dinner out in whatever restaurant we have decided to meet up in. Clearly, we make it a point never to book into the same restaurant twice – no matter how good their Margaritas were!
Laughter is most certainly medicine and those who are blessed with The Biggest Laugh In The Room generously dole out that medicine to those of us who are eager for a hit – as regularly as possible! In fact, as I sit here writing this essay, it takes me very little imagining to ‘hear’ both my Father’s laugh and my friend’s laugh, and I feel my own face smiling as I write. And I’m just that little bit happier than I was before I sat down!