Something I saw that's funny 2

     Want to know one thing that always makes me laugh? Awkward moments. Especially when I am the one who caused an awkward moment. And I am the queen of awkward moments. Not a day goes by where I don’t do or say something that is totally embarrassing and yet makes me laugh.

     For example, today my friend was coming over to my dorm to study. So I went downstairs to let her in. As I walking towards the lobby, I heard the door to Wright unlock, as someone let her in. Since she had not seen me yet, I thought it would be funny to try to scare her, since everyone lately has been jumping from behind corners and grabbing me, hoping to scare me. So I yell “Boo!” and jump around the corner. And to my surprise, the person directly in front of me was not my friend, but a random girl from my dorm. My friend was walking right behind her. I said to the girl, “I’m sorry, I thought you were my friend.” I was so embarrassed! I immediately started laughing while I was explaining to my friend that I thought it would be funny to try to scare her. She was laughing as well, because it was so awkward!

     I found this situation funny for many reasons. One reason is because my plan backfired. Instead of scaring my friend, I puzzled some poor random girl who probably thought “who IS this girl?” I also found this situation funny because of the embarrassment it gave me. I could not believe that I creeped out some random girl, and caused an awkward situation. I usually try to make an awkward situation better by laughing at myself. Today’s laughter following my awkward moment follows what Morreall wrote about the Relief Theory. He wrote how in certain situations, we have excess nervous energy that builds up and is then released through laughter. He also writes that this excess nervous energy is relieved through laughter only if the energy is inappropriate for the situation. At first, I was embarrassed after jumping out at the random girl, but then I realized that feeling embarrassed is pointless. I did not know this girl, and chances are, I am not going to even recognize her the next time I see her, if I even see her again. And plus, it was not the worst and not the most awkward situation I could have been in. Once I realized this important point, my excess nervous energy from my embarrassment came out through laughter. And finally, this situation was funny because of the cognitive shift, or a change in 2 mental states, or when your expectations about something are not met. My expectation, when I jumped out from behind the corner and yelled “boo,” was that my friend would be the first one I saw when I jumped out. Instead, there was some random girl in front of my friend. So my expectations were not met in this situation. Another part of the definition of the cognitive shift is that shift toward something less desirable, such as failure. In this scenario, I shifted from my hopes that my plan would be successful to something less desirable, which was the backfire of my plan. And thus, I found amusement in the situation. All of these factors that I described helped an awkward situation become a funny situation.

     I’m sure that this is not the last awkward moment I will have this week or even for today. But it’s okay, because these awkward and embarrassing moments never fail to bring humor and laughter into my life. I wonder what awkward thing I will do or say tomorrow!