Tuesday, January 22, 2008

It Was So Funny, I Forgot To Breathe

During lunchtime today, a co-worker, who we'll refer to as B,  called me from a restaurant where he and two other co-workers were eating lunch.  When I answered the phone, I couldn't hear anything except my friend laughing hysterically.  He managed to gather enough strength to tell me that he said something that was so funny, that it actually made his co-worker, who we'll refer to as D, laugh so hard that he truly stopped breathing and passed out.  Yep, passed out.  Cold.  D turned red, and then blue, and then fell out of his chair onto the floor of the restaurant.  From what I could gather, they were able to revive him fairly quickly, so as to not suffer much brain damage. My friend B said that it reminded him of the videos we've all probably seen of the infamous fainting goats -- a certain breed of goats that, when frightened, will just fall down to the ground.  I apologize now to D for having to suffer the brunt end of all of this, but we have all had quite a laugh today about the fainting goat episode at Howell's Bar and Grill. 

Having said all of that, I have one more question:  just what was so damned funny that it made you actually stop breathing and pass out? Please tell me, because I want to laugh, too. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I got so intrigued by this that I had to do a little research about it.  Seems some people have a condition that could cause them to faint when they laugh, cough, vomit or even use the bathroom.  Blood flow is reduced to the brain and the person faints.  Here's a link to the article I read.

http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/16/80.cfm

After reading this article, I'm betting this isn't the first time this person has had something like this happen to him.