Nervous laughter

Personal Vignettes- It’s the time of year when, even at 9:00, the sun has just only began to set over the orange and purple skyline. The blanket of white stars has just been laid over the rest of the world, but it’s still warm out. The sunlight wraps around my friends and I as we walk around on the hot pavement, which bleeds through our thin shoes and makes our feet hot. This particular day after Peter Pan rehearsal, my friends and I decided to walk around town, which turned into this evening,…

“Here you go Clover” I stare at Jeff the zoo keeper, while he drops a gold coin into my tank. When he walks away, I slowly slide down from my perch that was up on top of the fake little rainbow, that they had given me for my tank. I didn’t like the rainbow that much, but I guess it will have to do. In my opinion the rainbows back home were the best. Colors mixed perfectly in the golden rays of the sunlight. The rainbow in my tank was the complete opposite. It had a glare from my warm yellow tank…

Being popular in high school can truly be a struggle. Mean Girls is a teen comedy film loosely based on the self-help book titled Queen Bees and Wannabes. The main character is a high school student named Cady that just moved from Africa and has been homeschooled her whole life. The American culture and society she is introduced to is embodied by the Plastics, who are the most popular girls at North Shore High: Regina, Gretchen, and Karen. Mean Girls criticizes the idea that women can only be…

Why is Humor the Best Coping Strategy for Stress? One might ask why is humor the best coping strategy for stress? In a vast majority of people's’ perspectives, they believe laughter is the best medicine because it creates a sense of relief as well as reducing muscle tension. For these and many other reasons, humor is the best coping strategy for stress (“Managing Conflicts with Humor”). One of the main reasons why humor should be the best coping strategy to relieve stress is one’s well being…

In today’s world, humor is portrayed through many different outlets of society. Whether it be on the radio, in person during stand up, or on television, comedy is an easy way to lighten the mood and make easy conversation out of controversial topics. In Humor as a Technique of Social Influence the author states, “Humor may indeed be used to influence others, and suggest that humor may be a powerful agent of change in everyday life” (O’Quin and Aronoff, 355). Comedy in television is a crucial…

It was Oprah herself, whom had an entire TV segment called, Daring Greatly: Why Vulnerability Is Your Greatest Strength. It was on the episode where Dr. Brené Brown says,” You can't have true courage unless you open yourself up to vulnerability” (: http://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/daring-greatly-why-vulnerability-is-your-greatest-strength-video#ixzz4fT8jbNzC). Where the topic of discussion was, why being open, sharing your feelings, and having hard conversations, is indeed the only…

Never Too Weak To Stand For Yourself “CREAK”, the bus door opened and I waited as I watched all of the children struggling to get out. There is only one way I feel… I don’t want them to go. Every day I see them get off the “special needs” bus and get laughed at and see the fingers pointed straight at them, it’s ridiculous. You would have thought that tenth graders would have learned by now that bullying and harassment is childish, but apparently not. It’s amazing how much potential the…

His remarks were not meant as compliments, but he did not miss the playful glint that crossed her eyes when she took them as such. She was laughing gleefully, as though proud of such detrimental traits; he could not tell, whether it was a mix of her narcissism, arrogance, or perhaps, judging by her previous actions, results of insanity, a deranged personality. To him, she was a conundrum of sorts; dangerous, and unavoidable. She took a step towards him, before hopping onto and over the bar top…

“We often laugh simply because someone else is laughing. Laughter, like yawning, is behaviorally contagious, and we can catch it easily from other people, especially if we know them.” (Scott). That explained everything! I had never shared a connection with the characters that was in the sitcoms, but the individuals…

through the crowd toward me. I waved and caught her eye, and she smiled at my little "freeze" dance. Katy--always the jester--began to grotesquely limp her way to me. At her atrocious impersonation of a decrepit old lady, I went into paroxysms of laughter, eliciting a round of ferocious snorts from Katy. At the familiar amiability, I briefly forgot the cold and ran to her to give her a hug. Our boisterous reunion, predicated by…