The Travel Psychology of Laughter

The Travel Psychologist’s Take

Funny is funny no matter what the reason, who is involved, or what the consequences are. Whether at your expense, or due to your intentions, when people have a laugh, it matters not at all, the who, the  what, the why or the how. If it’s funny, people will laugh. Again, no matter if they are laughing at you, because of you, or in spite of you, the effect is the same, for better or for worse, the experience becomes memor-able. It becomes etched in stone and never, ever really and truly forgotten.

Oh yeah, if you were embarrassed at it all, it most certainly may become repressed. If people laughed because of you or in spite of you—unless it was a truly embarrassing and traumatic happening (in which case it most definitely would be best forgotten)—if you were the cause of unbridled or raucous laughter, that can be remembered as a good thing.

The Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

I recall when I taunted the ‘Fountain Gods’ at the Pete-rhof Palace in St Petersburg, Russia. These fountains squirt-ed passersby, presumably at random, when you stepped betwixt and between garden slate  stones.

I saw a gaggle of Russian girls who I was determined to make laugh totally at my expense. When I figured out and observed the hidden man (the ‘Fountain Deity’) the rest was history. I proceed to taunt and tease this ‘God,’ that dutifully squirted me at each and every turn, soaking me to the bone. The girls giggled and laughed uncon-trollably.

Mission accomplished! And now I have this wonderful memory!