People who laugh at their own jokes
Posted: Tue 11 Apr, 2006 14.14
I have a problem.
Someone in my life has started laughing increasingly hard at their own jokes. I've always hated that anyway, but I am finding myself growing increasingly anxious in their presence because of it.
In fact, it's starting to wind me up something rotten, and I am not a particularly patient or tolerant man at the best of times.
Prime example - we were in a cab the other night and we passed by a number of runners. Said person started talking with the taxi driver and agreed that it is something they would never do - hence fit of laughter so loud, it would not have disgraced Monty Python's "funniest joke in the world" sketch.
Even for things that are not funny, I am getting wound up by the possibility that the comment could cause such faux hilarity.
How the hell do you get a person to stop doing this without assassinating their character in the process?
I've already tried a number of strategies -
1) Keep bringing up the concept that "less is more" in many things,
2) Come out straight and say it - seems to hurt their feelings,
3) Explain that, when it happens, it puts me under pressure to laugh. Follow this up by saying that it is customary to tell a joke and wait for the other person to laugh before you start, and
4) Accuse them of being unnecessarily anxious around me - when said person is drunk, it never happens and they behave like a normal person when the subject of jokes occur.
The laugh is so hearty and chesty too - it reminds me of a Brian Blessed (and he is an annoying twat) type of guffaw.
Please help me before it results in murder.
Someone in my life has started laughing increasingly hard at their own jokes. I've always hated that anyway, but I am finding myself growing increasingly anxious in their presence because of it.
In fact, it's starting to wind me up something rotten, and I am not a particularly patient or tolerant man at the best of times.
Prime example - we were in a cab the other night and we passed by a number of runners. Said person started talking with the taxi driver and agreed that it is something they would never do - hence fit of laughter so loud, it would not have disgraced Monty Python's "funniest joke in the world" sketch.
Even for things that are not funny, I am getting wound up by the possibility that the comment could cause such faux hilarity.
How the hell do you get a person to stop doing this without assassinating their character in the process?
I've already tried a number of strategies -
1) Keep bringing up the concept that "less is more" in many things,
2) Come out straight and say it - seems to hurt their feelings,
3) Explain that, when it happens, it puts me under pressure to laugh. Follow this up by saying that it is customary to tell a joke and wait for the other person to laugh before you start, and
4) Accuse them of being unnecessarily anxious around me - when said person is drunk, it never happens and they behave like a normal person when the subject of jokes occur.
The laugh is so hearty and chesty too - it reminds me of a Brian Blessed (and he is an annoying twat) type of guffaw.
Please help me before it results in murder.