Will I injure myself if I hold in a really hard laugh?

Why hold it in? Were you in church.

I’ve never heard of an injury caused by holding in a laugh.

Probably not, but if you had an underlying condition (like an aneurism or something?) you might. Now I want to know what was so funny!

How’s your blood pressure? I wouldn’t think you’d feel that without something else going on. Also, what was so funny too.

I find it impossible to hold in a laugh. The harder I try the worse it gets.
Why did you want to hold it in? I have people at work always tell me that they know I’m there because they can hear me laughing across the store.
I’d love to know what was so funny and why you wanted to hold it in. :0)

Nah. If you keep doing it, you’ll get abs like mount olympus.

I don’t know if it will actually hurt you physically, but it might cause you some embarrassment. You could pee in your pants or spray saliva all over yourself. Next breath through your mouth. You can learn to laugh silently when you just _can’t_laugh out loud. Open your mouth wide and let your diaphragm pant without any sound coming out. Not as much fun as letting it rip, but there are times when a guffaw is not suitable.

Everyone I know who has held in a really hard laugh exploded. Which would make suppressed laughter no laughing matter if it were not entirely a matter regarding laughing.

But I have seen it so seldom that it is impossible to infer direct cause and effect. Maybe they were just about to explode anyway, and they coincidentally did so at the moment they just happened to hold in a really hard laugh. So in the interest of science, I recommend you hold in your next really hard laugh. If you survive, get back to us and we can put this matter to rest. Suppressed laughter is survivable. If we don’t hear from you again, then it will be safe for us to assume suppressed convulsive laughter does, indeed, cause the individual doing it to explode.

Good luck.

No.

@ucme You’re just saying that because you want to get a big laugh out of watching @Blackberry explode.

@ETpro I can’t see him so that would be of no use to me.

I had the ultimate (for me) laugh challenge when I was having a 45-minute MRI. Something struck me funny while I was lying there inside that claustrophobic barrel thing, under orders not to move a muscle, and I thought I was going to break myself.

In the past, in church services, classrooms, staff meetings, and dentists’ chairs, I haven’t succeeded in suppressing a huge laugh or a fit of giggles (although usually I could stifle a bit), but I managed to hold it until they finally rolled me out, I don’t know how.

Then I did burst out laughing.

The technician gave me a puzzled look and said, “That’s a really unusual reaction.”

Oh ok, well that’s good. I should start quietly breathing through my mouth when laughing quietly.

What I was laughing at isn’t as funny now, but when I read it it was at 4:30AM (you know how you become a little goofy on the night shift). I was high on coffee and such…..

But I was reading a thread titled “What’s the best way to freak out a complete stranger?” There were two answers that had my sides splitting:

1. Go to grocery store.
2. Buy beer and baby formula.
3. Have enough cash for one or the other.
4. Put baby formula back.

Also:

“Shake their hand, but do it in a circular motion instead of up and down. Slowly make the circle bigger, and increase speed. The whole time keep a completely straight poker face. Even after they break out of the grip, keep doing it to the air and stare where they used to be with the same expression. Proceed for 3 hours.”

@Blackberry Wait, by circular motion to you mean like pedaling a bicycle, or as if you were drawing a circle in the air?

I’m worried about your sanity @Blackberry :(

@Michael_Huntington He can’t say I did not warn him he would explode.