Someone dry-heaving leaves me in stitches

WHILE some things are funny to everyone, others only have certain people in stitches. So why do certain scenarios set people off?

When Manchild farted in studio, Jackie O couldn't control the retching.

OPINION

IS THERE something out there that sets you off in a fit of laughter? No matter how normal or random it might be, it just gets you rolling on the floor like it’s the funniest thing ever?

Gagging, dry-heaving, retching. It doesn’t matter what you call it, the sound of someone physically trying not to throw up is hilarious to me.

It doesn’t matter how bad a mood I’m in, or how busy I am. If someone starts doing their best impersonation of a cat bringing up a hairball, you can guarantee I will be in hysterics with tears coming down my face, while desperately trying to compose myself.

I don’t know why, but for me it is without a doubt the funniest thing there is.

I’m laughing as I write this and the act itself isn’t even happening. It’s the mere thought of it that’s making me snicker like an actual child (the person at the desk next to me no doubt thinks I’ve lost the plot).

Jackie Henderson of The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Kiis FM is definitely one of my worst set-offs. I’ve actually been driving and had to pull the car over because I was laughing so hard at her gagging. She’s a repeat offender and has heaved on live radio over something gross more than a few times.

In 2015 the duo were pranked with a loaf of bread made with “vaginal yeast” that someone sent in. Henderson and her offsider Kyle Sandilands were both heaving in that segment and I was laughing so hard, my sides hurt.

Even one of the production team farting in the studio has set Jackie off.

Manchild Farted In The Studio - And Jackie's Gag Reflex Got The Better Of Her #KJshow pic.twitter.com/X8lWveF7EF

— Kyle and Jackie O (@kyleandjackieo) July 10, 2016

While it’s not necessarily the other person’s weakened or vulnerable state of misfortune that makes me laugh (come on, I’m not a narcissist), for some reason the animated way they physically try to keep vomit down is just too funny.

I would like to make a point of saying if it was a hypothetical situation where someone slipped and fell on their butt in public, my first reaction would be to go and help them, not stand their cacking myself -- I’m not evil. That might be some people’s funny-bone trigger, but for me, it’s definitely dry heaving that makes me lose it.

According to the publication Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, by University of Maryland professor of psychology Robert Irvine, laughter’s significance has been recognised by the likes of Aristotle, Darwin and Freud.

“Aside from a general appreciation that laughter is good for us — ‘the best medicine’ — there is still little known about laughter itself. There is no exact science as to why some things trigger some people, but not others,” he said.

Laughing is not something we can always control. Anyone who has been in a situation that required complete silence will tell you, that’s when they found the dumbest thing the most funny and had the hardest time trying to stay silent and respectful. But like yawning, coughing or sneezing, it is out of our control when we laugh.

So I still don’t know why dry-heaving makes me laugh hysterically, but you better believe next time some poor soul is struggling to hold back a vomit; I will be LOLing like a mad man.