Filed by KOSU News in Art & Life.
August 18, 2011

As if CNN’s highly publicized walk-out last night wasn’t enough — or if you’re more interested in giggling than indignation — there’s also footage today of anchor Anderson Cooper getting the giggles while doing a “Ridiculist” segment about actor Gerard Depardieu and his unfortunate incident on an airplane the other day. In short, others have alleged that the actor, denied quick access to the restroom, urinated on the floor.

Whoever wrote this copy, whether it was Cooper or someone else, loaded it with as many dopey puns as possible, to the point where he was holding back laughter from the very beginning, as much over the sheer silliness of it as over the idea that it was actually funny. He gets almost to the end of the jokey rant, and then he hits the idea that those who cleaned it up should be “glad it wasn’t Depardieu.” Doo. Get it? It’s an incredibly juvenile joke, which is the only thing that makes it funny, and before he knows it, Cooper has gone over the cliff and can’t stop giggling.

If you’ve ever had this happen to you, you know how appalling it is. (As I’ve said, it happened to me once in the office when I saw this photo.) Despite the fact that laughing always seems happy, when you can’t stop and you have something else you’re supposed to be doing, it’s kind of awful. If you’re laughing at yourself, it’s utterly mortifying. I once did a reading in front of an audience of something I had written, and I came across a very bizarre image in which I posited that a guy’s head looked like if you pressed on it, it would yield like a Nerf ball. I have no idea why I thought it was so funny, but I thought it was funny again, and I really felt so gross about it that I almost had to make myself invisible and then retire.

So I ask you this: What is your most mortifying story about getting the giggles? [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]