Obligatory Laughter

The amount of time between when a joke is told or something funny happens and when someone actually laughs is a very little amount of time (no more than 3 seconds give or take); that is if whatever it was was truly funny. However, in these unfortunate instances when someone expects you to laugh and you did not find their comment funny, time begins to play a major role. It is as if time it self has stopped and you are wondering, "do I laugh to satisfy right now or am I actually supposed to reveal my true feelings about this...?" As time ticks by, each of these thoughts runs through your head, prolonging the eventual obligated laughter even further. Finally, you realize that laughing at whatever was "funny" seems most appropriate and fold under the pressure of being obligated to laugh. If you have ever witnessed the reaction of the person receiving such obligatory laughter, though, you would be able to observe something quite different. It took so long to sort out whether or not to laugh, that the joke that was once considered funny (at least by the one person), is no longer. Clearly, the aspect of time in relation to laughter, especially obligatory laughter, affects the outcome of what is expected. The further something is prolonged, the less funny it gets. So why is it that this occurs? Things that occur in quick instances do not allow us to analyze what has happened, only react. It is the reaction of laughter, therefore, that we resort to. This reaction is, for the most part, involuntary, contrary to what some might believe, and is a true depiction of our reactions to things that occur right before our eyes. In reference to a psychological shift, it is that of the conceptual shift which occurs. This is based on our expectations of certain aspects in our life. These expectations are usually assigned to certain objects, however in the case of obligatory laughter, our expectation of laughing due to an instant feeling is kept in mind quite readily. Because we expect to laugh at things that occur quickly and that are funny, when neither of these instances occur, a false laugh is forced to come out. This false laugh, obligatory laughter, is due to the crushing of our normal expectation of laughter.