Irritant of the Day No. 1

America, when you are amused by something, why do you stare me in the eye with the most pan-faced expression known to man and say emotionlessly, "Ohmygod. That is so funny,"?



Try just laughing next time. It's like talking to a botoxed frog.

Comments

  1. Calum Karczewski19 February 2010 at 02:59

    OhMyGod Laura, Your blog is so funny. x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve19 February 2010 at 04:00

    Oh my god Laura that is so funny already! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laura Jane Williams19 February 2010 at 04:28

    Cal- Ohmygod.

    Steve- You can't use an exclamation point! What would the Americans say?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steve19 February 2010 at 08:07

    OMG OMG OMG Laura, you're right, OMG you are so funny OMG AWESOME

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kirsty19 February 2010 at 08:39

    Have you seen the Scrubs episode where JD actually dumps a girl (Mandy Moore) because she keeps saying "that's so funny" instead of laughing?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous19 February 2010 at 10:45

    Weird that, I agree. But, I'm Canadian so I can't directly relate. Actually Canadians cannot directly relate to a great deal, much to my personal mortification.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous19 February 2010 at 11:57

    mrwriteon

    that is so very funny.....really.

    dad

    ReplyDelete
  8. P19 February 2010 at 12:21

    Was the person you were talking to an internet addict?

    Because occasionally I find myself saying "lol" instead of actually laughing. And I blame the internet for that...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Laura Jane Williams19 February 2010 at 12:45

    Steve- much better.

    Kirsty- no, but that seems like a wise choice.

    Ian- but i love you Canadians!

    P- you should be shot. Do you know that? Shot.

    x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rachel20 February 2010 at 20:49

    Ya know, this is what I love about you being in America: you mock them for all the ridiculous things they actually do! I love your suggestion too. I wonder if I could pull off a botoxed frog....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous21 February 2010 at 03:34

    It isn't just an American thing. Here it is cool...my son does it and he's old enough to know better-I've given up telling him jokes.

    Have a nice day...aaaagheeeegoodgrief!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Laura Jane Williams21 February 2010 at 19:08

    Rachel- I mock them because I love them. I want to live here forever.

    Moannie- Smack your son upside the head for such ridiculous reactions to your jokes. Do it for me, and for America.

    x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jen R. (emeraldsunshine.org)6 March 2010 at 09:34

    I can't read your blog anymore. It is giving me a complex.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Laura Jane Williams8 March 2010 at 10:34

    Jen R. NO WAIT! COME BACK! I love you guys!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everything looks better with my eyes open

An incomplete list of some things I call my 2017 achievements: - saw my first ballet, from the really cheap seats all the way at the back. - cleansed, toned and moisturised every morning, and every night. - bought furniture. - threw a really very good Christmas party. - refused to save the candles for best. - called my mother. - called my father. - interviewed a celebrity. - deleted Facebook. - stopped nannying. - maintained a relationship with the girls I used to nanny - and their mama. - took a month off. - bought £300-worth of sex toys all in one go. - went viral online for falling over. - said out loud that I want a baby. - received a case of wine. - got offered a horse and cart at the entrance to Soho Farmhouse. - went swimming in the ladies pond on the Heath when we had the heatwave. - went home for Easter. - went ginger, and on purpose. - hosted an event about mental health. - did my first lit fest. - took a day trip to Oxford. - saw Titanic at the Royal Albert Hall with a l...
Read more

Above my bed

Image
The metre-and-a-half wide frame has hung empty above my bed since July. I paid a man to hang it. I'd harboured, to begin with, reservations about how my feminism and my employment of somebody else to execute the job dovetailed awkwardly, but after I hit myself in the face with a hammer one night, not understanding the difference between a nail at 45 degrees into a diving wall and a drill with a spiral anchor into a brick wall, I decided the most feminist act would be, in fact, to use my hard-earned feminist money to feministly delegate somebody better qualified to help me out - who yes, just so happened to be a man. I have never looked back.  The room needed something above the bed - that's why I got the frame and had it hung - but I couldn't rush to fill it. It needed to be right. I didn't want a generic Ikea print: they can satisfy the dead area behind the door in the living room because that is a neutral space. Bedrooms - bedrooms must be ...
Read more

Your story is not ready for you to worry about yet

Image
I teach creative writing, and often what happens is that my students repeat my words back to me and I don't understand that it was me who said them first and it's a headfuck. I love teaching. I love communicating knowledge and I love using my skill with words to package information in a way that lands with the other person. I sort of took it upon myself, at the end of last year, to help one of the girls I used to nanny with her 11+ because I could so clearly identify where her boldest missteps were and part of me thought  maybe I am interfering too much  and then her mother cancelled her tutor and asked me to come over instead and you know what? She aced the exam and I know I played a part in that. After, when she called me to tell me how good she felt about what she'd done, I cried. She's working on a novel and she FaceTimed me on Easter Sunday from a walk on the Devon coast to show me some goat poo. That child reminds me to be love. Some people have comme...
Read more