3 Reasons Why People Laugh at Funerals

As I am fully aware, there are different degrees of socially inappropriate behavior.

If I feel compelled to sneeze at a salad bar, for example, that behavior will most likely be consigned to the relative harmlessness of a faux pas--a social blunder.

But, contrarily, what if I laugh at a funeral? Wouldn't that behavior warrant a much stronger level of disapproval?

Couldn't I expect to receive harsh glances or some whispered intonations of undisclosed hostility?

Or, would someone in the vast crowd of mourners understand my laughter? What, if any, are the reasons to laugh at a funeral?

Reason #1: Denial of the Situation

I might laugh at a funeral, first and foremost, because I don't know what else to do.

This means that, in spite of my good intentions to remain socially appropriate, I still have the need to face my hurt over the loss of a loved one in steps of gradual propinquity.

The apparently omnipresent rule book of social appropriateness hardly outweighs my need to express the explicit emotions of the moment.

Laughter is the best medicine in dealing with grief.

Reason #2: A Sign of Family Responsibility

Who says that people laugh at a funeral because they are silly and irresponsible?

Perhaps if the leader of the family has died, I might feel it is best to pick up the pieces in their honor.

By laughing at a funeral, I am honoring the deceased by showing that it is okay to laugh and to be comforted with laughter.

By laughing at a funeral, I am setting an example of some emergent family responsibility.

It is what the dearly departed would have wanted.

Reason #3: Laughter is Contagious

A final explanation for why people laugh at funerals can be understood in less philosophical ways.

Isn't laughter contagious? Wouldn't even the person who has died laugh when he or she has seen someone else laughing?

In my struggle for social appropriateness at a funeral, I should not be dismayed to find that people are only people. When the mood strikes, they will laugh regardless of the circumstances.

In sum, I know that socially inappropriate behavior warrants different degrees of condemnation.

Yet, laughing at a funeral can actually be a good thing once it is understood in its context.

Laughing at a funeral can benefit me as a single person.

It can also benefit those around me at a funeral who are also at a loss for knowing what else to do.

People hurt. Why not use laughter to soothe the situation?

Source: Personal Experience