ICE Cold Laughter

The other day I was walking behind a group of students who were having any normal conversation that we all would have on the way to class. We are all obviously aware of the huge mounds of snow covering the entire campus here, so seeing someone slip has become the usual. As I continued to walk behind this group, we all witnessed someone attempting to cross the street. The key word here is attempt. Mid way through, they slipped on a very hidden piece of ice that probably any student crossing would've slipped on. The laughter that which erupted from the group ahead of me (and myself) lasted for probably 2 minutes, which is a lot considering the cause of this laughter was less than 5 seconds long. This amazed me. The ability for people to laugh about something that lasted for nearly 5 seconds was not the dumbfounding part. It was that the laughter ceased after the original 2 minutes right after the fall, however began again ten minutes later. The laughter that then followed was purely reminiscent, however produced the same hearty laugh that occurred when the person crossing actually slipped. This happening allowed me to conclude that shorter instances result in longer laughter due in part because of the fact that what happened is no longer available for the people to continue to laugh at. Therefore, this is when the laughter is purely based on memory of the actual incident. Our shift from actual laughter in the moment to reminiscent laughter can be separated by however many minutes. What remains constant is the ability to laugh the same way.