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Case of the Giggles

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how to stop the giggles
the giggles
What makes you giggle? I always seem to get the giggles at the most ridiculous times, like in meetings at work. Does that happen to you, too? I was in a meeting once when I realized that the person I was talking to looked just like Billy Bob Thornton. I don’t know why it was so funny, but I could feel the giggles building up inside me, and I had to pinch myself to keep from breaking out into uncontrollable laughter. Another time, I asked my sister to do my eye makeup and couldn’t stop laughing when I realized how close she had to get to my eyeballs with pointy little brushes. The more I tried to stop, the more I couldn’t. 
In this interesting article about laughter, Robert Provine, the author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, explains, “Laughter is not under much conscience control. We don’t decide to laugh, it just happens. Most laughter is for no reason; it’s not a response to a joke. It’s a response to other people.” He also says that “cracking up – even at a funeral or formal state event – isn’t all that unusual.” (Which is comforting to know if it ever happened to you but would still be so terribly awkward!) The best way to stop a laughing fit, he says, is simply to go off by yourself. 

Do you get the giggles? Does it ever happen to you at awkward moments? What’s the last thing that set them off?  

p.s. read the comments on the article – it happens to all of us! 

Last modified: January 10, 2019