I was at this Jewish event one Friday night in Pico-Robertson circa 1995 and I thought I was being terribly amusing because people were laughing.
The organizer pulled me aside and said I was being inappropriate. “But they were laughing,” I said.
“They were laughing out of embarrassment,” he said.
That took me aback. I hadn’t thought of that.
I was reading one of my brilliant stories the other night and my teacher suggested that when my therapist pealed off into a fit of uncontrollable giggles, she might’ve been laughing out of embarrassment, not amusement.
I think I’m terribly amusing, but much of the time I’m just embarrassing. I see my behavior as grand when really it is beneath contempt. I think I’m contributing when I’m really just horrifying.
