3-Point Shots and Laughter

I’m not a difficult person to make smile or laugh, but when I laugh I don’t usually laugh loudly or for a long time. My friends have the ability to make me laugh though. Recently, I went with my friends to a basketball game. Two of my friends were supposed to be playing in the intermural game, but only one was. They were playing on the “D-Team” for their fraternity, and this is a team that you can truly tell only plays because they enjoy the game. One of my friend’s main goals is basically to entertain the crowd when he isn’t actively playing basketball.

The silly antics of some of the team members, and how much fun they have playing often makes me laugh. My friend once tried and succeeded in getting his fraternity brothers to rush the court DURING the game. That cost them a time out, but was pretty funny.

The event that really made my friends and I bust out laughing was when my friend shot a 3 pointer, and actually made it in the basket. We weren’t expecting him to make the shot, since he hadn’t really made any of his shots before. We were really excited and surprised by the fact that he made the 3-point shot, that my friends and I busted out into laughter. He laughed about it too, and was really surprised that he made the basket. I wish I had that moment on film! We were all so shocked, because what happened wasn’t what we were expecting. I think that this is one of the primary reasons that we were laughing so hard. It wasn’t because we didn’t think he would ever make a shot, but we weren’t expecting him to get a 3-point shot, that he was just trying to toss into the hoop. I think that this is a perfect example of the incongruity theory because we all were expecting the shot to be an air ball or bounce off the rim, and instead it sailed in perfectly and he got 3 points.

His reaction to the shot, which was a combination of pure excitement and shock, helped make the situation even funnier to my friends and I, because even he didn’t expect the ball to go in the basket. The fact that he was smiling and shocked about the shot helped to let us laugh about the shot because we were excited and shocked too.

In addition to the incongruity theory, I think that this moment really showcases how laughter can be a community inspired event. He was shocked and excited by his basket, and the rest of the community wasn’t expecting it either. As a way of sharing our joy and shock, we were laughing. I can’t speak for the rest of my friends who watched the game, but laughing really helped me enjoy the basketball game and made it fun. It was a game where we didn’t expect my friend’s team to win (they didn’t), but he made a surprising and good shot and we were able to laugh and relax. Even though we were laughing at the fact that he made a basket, I don’t think that this qualifies as an account of negative humor because we were laughing in shock and excitement, and were simply sharing our joy with my friend who made the basket. To me, the laughter in this event had more to do with community than with actually finding something humorous. The words and actions of this story may not be humorous on its own, but the reaction and the community surrounding my friends and I made the situation funny, and we were able to laugh.