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

[PiddlePoo]

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?

I would hazard a guess that the rule is, if the person falling finds it funny then it's okay to laugh. If they don't then it's cruel.

^this. I have some bitching^ scars that come with great stories that I recount with a good dose of humour. My favourite is the long scar on my palm from when I ripped it open on wire while climbing the fence to break into the university pool.

But they're my stories and my laughs. I've no objection if I think I've made a tit of myself and stacked it /walked into something/whatever, and I laugh at myself and a friend joins in. But I really don't get laughing when the person who fell isn't laughing. It just seems mean and superior.

I fell down the stairs in a pub in Turkey, think open staircase full of people. Top to bottom on my arse, upon arrival I received a round of applause and then did a curtsy!

I Blame the beer!

I don't laugh at people who fall over because of some wonky paving etc. I will go help them up and if they then laugh I will laugh a bit with them as it eases any embarrassment.

My all time fav fall is when I came out of the bike shop with my new clipin pedals and rode away for the first time on a busy road. I had to stop as the lights turned red so had started to slow down and was trying to get my foot out but couldn't. Started praying for green light but it didn't happen in time and I tried my best to stay in my bike and ended up doing a wobble in slow mo to the right then to the left and finally fell over attached to my bike (thankfully pavement side). The cyclists behind me rescued me as I couldn't get out of the pedals even after falling but we were laughing so much for a good while as they helped me and one of them was kind enough to tell me the tension was set too high and that was why I couldn't get my feet out and adjusted it for me :)

Fell and fractured my ankle in 3 places. Plates and screws and a lot of pain. My ankle causes me problems

Fell and fractured my wrist in 3 places. Plates and screws and lots of pain. My wrist has never regained full range of motion and hurts.

No, falls are not funny in the least.

I don't laugh at falls - can't stand ridiculing people for things they can't control.
Similarly can't stand You've been Framed or the public humiliation bits of most 1980s family TV shows (anything with Noel Edmonds or Michael Barrymore).
I think it is because I feel hugely embarrassed for the person being humiliated and hope they aren't physically hurt - by the time I know they are OK and they have got over the shock, the moment for laughing has rather passed.

Some very sensitive people on this thread who I think are getting the wrong idea.. And some extreme examples being quoted which of course no-one would stand there laughing at.
I think most people saying they laugh don't do it loudly and intentionally like a bully would laugh at his victim, it's more a quick involuntary chuckle, then caring response kicks in and check the person is alright, then the real laughs come when replaying the scenario in their heads or recalling it to someone..
I was walking into town once downhill on sheet ice, it was rush hour so lots of others doing the same.. We were all looking at each other laughing at the sight of us walking like penguins. It was inevitable some of us would fall.. When my time came I fell on my bum, saw people do as I've said above- automatic reaction chuckle then came to help me up. Laughing does NOT make you a horrible person. Not attempting to help if close by would though.

It comes down to different senses of humours! People are being wrongly demonised here.

When someone falls over they are likely to experience a shock, embarrassement and pain with a possible injury.

What is funny about that? My immediate response is concern, not ridicule.
A person falling is in a vulnerable situation.

There are some pretty hard unfeeling folk around to laugh at the misfortune of others.

We used to laugh at those with a disability in the street or guffaw as we threw rotten fruit at people in the stocks.

Thankfully as a society we have grown up a little.
Seems not all of us have lost that infantile view though.

Mildly amusing in some circumstances perhaps, OP - but not really 'hilarious' or have me 'howling' with laughter.

The tone of your posting - with it's laughing at other's accidents - has perhaps got other posters' backs up.

I feel a bit weird here as I have been the first to rush over to a person who clearly fell badly - not funny. Madonnas fall saw me clap a hand over my mouth in horror and sympathy. BUT...random guy tripping and correcting himself with jaunty jump - hilarious. My sisters shoe lace being caught in escalator forcing her to run on spot like a loon to avoid falling and then falling anyway - so funny I nearly peed. My friend somehow thinking the second step was the last step and then running in the air like fred flintstone as she fell...I actually did wee. So maybe for me its not the fall but how it came about! That model up thread fell twice - i didn't laugh the first time but when she did that weird ankle stutter the second time I howled.

People falling over IS funny! But then I laugh at all sorts of things.

I laughed when my grandmother died. Also laughed when I got abysmal exam results, once. I also laugh when see footage of Sept 11. Not sure why!

I freely admit to being a terrible person but I laughed like a drain watching Madonna at the Brits. Afterwards she did look a little shaken, and I sympathise, but at the time it's an involuntary thing.

I fall over loads. DS1 has dyspraxia and it's no question that he gets it from me; together we're absolute tools. But we laugh at ourselves and one another. We also laugh at YS when he falls off stuff because it stops him crying if he realises it's no big deal (obviously if he's upset we don't laugh, but minor scrapes are fine). I fell over whilst drunk years ago, did a lunge through the doors into a pub, commando-rolled across the carpet and stood up with my arms in that gymnast pose and earned a round of applause and a drink from the lady behind the bar.

On another drunk escapade I fell into a pond and had to walk two miles home because the cabbie refused to let me in as I reeked (of pond mange, not generally). Life's too short to not laugh.

That must be it, EatShitDerek.

The story of your daft leg-breaking mum is priceless, btw. Poor you, though!

Something awful can happen from a funny situation. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Quite. Hence the black humour relied upon for stress relief by our armed forces and emergency services/medical profession.

The pious need not get all hysterical about this. (And no, the people not finding toe stubbing type/non-nasty fall accidents funny are not pious. Those who get ugly and judgemental in this thread are the ones for whom the "pious" cap fits.)

No Salmo, don't be ridiculous. As I said, it's minor slips, trips and falls that are funny. My dad was a thirty something year old man dicking about on his bike and he came a cropper. It was hilarious.

Again Bigblue, I said in my original post MINOR SLIPS, TRIPS AND FALLS

And yes I have been laughed at - I once slipped spectacularly on a slippery floor at work in front of about half a dozen men. EVERYONE laughed - including myself - and 9 years later the damage to my back is still painful. But it was a comedy slip, I don't begrudge anyone laughing

I will out myself here but my ex husband getting hit by a car was fucking hilarious. He had zipped himself into his fetching 90's fleece bomber jacket, you know both arms inside the coat? Slipped over while crossing but because his arms were zipped in was unable to get back up and thus was lying in the road flapping like a seal - he started trying to do the worm to get over the road. The traffic coming the other way meant I couldn't get back to help him easily and a car came round the corner - only nudged him as they were able to slow right down but once he was safe I laughed like a freak for hours. He was doing the worm FFS, shouting 'Queen, Queen, I am a bit stuck'. I defy ANY of you not to have laughed.

Mumsnet is so bloody weird sometimes.

Queen that is fucking hilarious

labrador- but how do you know-"MINOR SLIPS, TRIPS AND FALLS "

You must be very well qualified to make such an instant judgement.

My nephew fell off the side of a trampoline- his mother was howling with laughter. They boy only fell a couple of feet.
Ended up he had broken his back in two places, had to have two steel pins permanently inserted to fuse his back together.

He was very upset that his mother found the situation so funny. He was hurt, he was embarrassed, and he has a fright.

Can you explain the funny part- because I just don't get it.