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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that there's nothing funnier than people falling over?

299 replies

PiddlePoo · 26/02/2015 17:11

Inspired by Madonna's fall at last nights Brits. I can't remember the last time I've laughed so much at a live TV event, it was hilarious. Even the reporter on Sky News was trying not laugh whilst talking about it later on in the evening, and myself and my colleagues have been laughing about it all day today.

A few years ago during the bad snowfall we had there was a clip shown on ITV news of a group of people slipping over on the same patch of ice on a pavement. That made me howl as well.

What is it about people falling over that makes it so amusing?

OP posts:
emotionsecho · 26/02/2015 20:11

I read somewhere back in the mists of time that it's an automatic nervous reaction.

Joining those in the camp who find it funny, I think it is the unexpected nature of it.

HeisenbergsBlueMeth · 26/02/2015 20:12

I don't laugh when i see people fall, but yet couple of hours later I'll get the image in my head of them falling and will get the giggles, as long as they weren't injured

Cunderthunt · 26/02/2015 20:15

What's even funnier than seeing people fall over is people saying they actually find it upsetting, for some reason that tickles me!

BudsBeginingSpringinSight · 26/02/2015 20:18

as long as not nasty fall yes its funny and I am very happy for people to laugh at my many many tumbles!

ManOfSpiel · 26/02/2015 20:19

PrimalLass

I didn't see Madonna fall so can't say whether it would've made me laugh but I have to admit that I find that sort of thing funny. I don't think it makes me a bad person but falling over and hurting yourself has been the staple of comedies for aeons.

Vic and Bob's "I've fallen Vic" was comedy gold and Miranda is hilarious too.

There's no way the above clip should be funny but she's a comedy genius.

And then there's this:

And even Ellen Degeneres makes a good argument for it too.

Some people laugh and some people don't but please don't give us chucklers a hard time.

Dognado · 26/02/2015 20:21

I don't find it funny and it reminds me of the feeling of being bullied, people laughing at me / someone vs with them. Hate it.

Dognado · 26/02/2015 20:22

I also didn't find the Madonna clip funny as I could empathise with how horrifying it must have been knowing you were young to be pulled backwards down stairs by your neck. So, yeah, empathy.

PrimalLass · 26/02/2015 20:25

Maybe it has ManofSpiel, but I still judge people who are amused by stuff like that.

ManOfSpiel · 26/02/2015 20:36

PrimalLass

Fair enough, I guess we're all different.

Are you honestly saying that the Miranda clip didn't even make the corner of your mouth twinge, even a bit?

Mocheenee · 26/02/2015 20:38

Strokethefurrywall

That clip was bloomin hilarious, I am howling - what the hell was going on with her feet ?? Hubby and I are both in tears !!

Original poster
PiddlePoo · 26/02/2015 20:38

Dognado don't you you think that Madge should have thought about how potentially dangerous it is to be pulled backwards down a flight of stairs by a cape? It's her own fault really.

Some the comments on here are hysterical, people listing all of their appalling injuries. Surely you realise that yours are an extreme case and that when most people fall they just get back up again?

OP posts:
PrimalLass · 26/02/2015 20:42

Nope I don't find Miranda funny full stop.

PrimalLass · 26/02/2015 20:45

And actually laughing at an actor falling on purpose is different to laughing at an accident.

Although I wonder if us non-laughers have felt bullied and mocked in the past so that's why we are upset by this kind of 'humour'?

JassyRadlett · 26/02/2015 20:46

Some the comments on here are hysterical, people listing all of their appalling injuries. Surely you realise that yours are an extreme case and that when most people fall they just get back up again?

To be fair, I got back up again too. Grin

But honestly, I just don't find it funny if people do something that makes them feel embarrassed. I feel bad for them. If they laugh it off or turn it into a funny story, I might laugh with them - but not at them just because they slipped or tripped. Seems pretty mean-spirited to me, that's all.

Mocheenee · 26/02/2015 20:50

Our friends always have a giggle when we recall a pretty spectacular fall one of us suffered.
When we picked her up and asked her what she'd hurt, "only my pride" was her sheepish reply. A classic.

However, when a fall is a genuinely nasty one it is usually obvious, and the instinct to help rather than laugh comes to the forefront, in my experience anyway.

JassyRadlett · 26/02/2015 20:53

Although I wonder if us non-laughers have felt bullied and mocked in the past so that's why we are upset by this kind of 'humour'?

Good point, Primal. I was a clumsy kid. I got laughed at quite a bit. Not nice to be on the receiving end, which may be why I'm more empathetic and find any comedy that relies on someone being embarrassed/humiliated really uncomfortable.

ManOfSpiel · 26/02/2015 20:59

PrimalLass

I don't know to be honest but is likely to be different for all of us. I don't mind being the butt of the joke as I'm quite thick skinned but not everyone is the same.

I understand what you're saying about actors and real life but real life incendents are hugely variable. Some are funny and some aren't.

I slipped at the top of the stairs once and bum slid all the way down. I must have sounded like a bloody machine gun as my backside hit every step on the way. My wife was crying.

However, that's different to a scenario where I could have fallen head first. Doing that could have killed me and that wouldn't be quite as amusing.

Kikiw123 · 26/02/2015 21:12

I fell once as I was running for a bus.

I ran down a slight grassy incline rather than walk/run round it on the path as some sort of short cut.

My legs shot in front of me and I went skidding down the slope on my arse. I looked up and the driver had stopped the bus. It was 8.03 the bus was packed and I was wearing white jeans. I had to go home to get changed.

Anyone on that bus that day that didn't laugh seriously had something wrong with them.

bigbluestars · 26/02/2015 21:12

I don't find it funny at all.

I see nothing amusing watching people having an accident with potential injury.

mummytowillow · 26/02/2015 21:21

Yeh my mum thought it was hilarious when she fell in the snow and dislocated her shoulder.

Even funnier she was left on a gurney for 8 hours and the nerves died, so she can't move her arm Hmm and hasn't been able to for 8 years now.

We're all still laughing now about it NOT!

bigbluestars · 26/02/2015 21:37

I think the laughers are pretty naiive and maybe yet to have seen a serious fall- or have they laughed and things have taken a serious note?

My friend fell off a harbour wall onto a concrete pavement, landing face first. No one laughed.
My 12 year old nephew fell off a trampoline- my stupid SIL was guffawing but didn't see the funny side when it beame apparent the boy had broken his back.

All falls have the potential to be serious- my first thought is never humour- how would you feel laughing at a fall which turns our to have serious consequences?

LabradorMama · 26/02/2015 21:38

For goodness sake, it's only minor falls, slips and trips that are funny - no one would laugh at someone landing on their dead or bleeding everywhere.

But maybe I'm biased, I am a laugh out louder. I inherited it from my mum, she used to get daily laughs from watching my clumsy oaf dad falling over at any opportunity. Once he fell off his bike on the Humber bridge and she laughed so hard she wet herself

I used to work in a showroom with huge glass windows and every year we'd get seagulls nesting in the roof. Any time a pedestrian walked past the showroom the seagulls would dive at them and attack them, it was absolutely hilarious. We used to line up and watch them take people down. One man dodged the seagull twice but then tripped over a paving slab and did that thing where you pitch forward and desperately try to save yourself, arms outstretched. It was too much for me, I ran to the loos and cried for about 10 minutes!!

Salmotrutta · 26/02/2015 21:40

Oh yes, we all laughed like drains when my elderly Dad tripped on the kerb and fell.
We laugh even harder at the chronic back pain he now suffers because of it Hmm

And let's not forget the time I tripped going down a step, twisted my ankle, grazed my hands and knees (full skin thickness grazes by the way) because that was so hilarious that several people rushed over and helped me up, retrieved my handbag and its spilt contents and asked me if I was alright. Splitting their sides they were. Not.

fizzycolagurlie · 26/02/2015 21:40

I think it must be hilarious to see people falling down if you are a half wit trained on the likes of bad 1970s comedy like Benny Hill.

If however, you're a sentient being then no not remotely funny.

ARoomWithoutAView · 26/02/2015 21:42

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
My brother was running along a wet field one day in the country slipped and pitched head first into the largest fresh wet cowpat you ever saw. Full on.... like one of those pies in the black and white movies. (Moooovies haha)

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