That was a while back, actually. But it's still amusing.
In our sci-fi club, we have a fairly regular competition/gathering/silliness where we get together in a big circle and do a reading. As soon as you start laughing, your turn is over and you have to pass the story to the next reader.
I can't imagine that's too much of a challenge for some people - not because the text isn't funny, but because they are reading it out loud. I know that when I'm reading anything out loud, I have almost no awareness of what I'm actually saying. I'm entirely focused on connecting eyes to mouth instead of eyes/ears to brain. Really, it's a skill you kind of lose after you graduate from "Dick and Jane" to silent reading.
I'm sure some people find it a lot easier than others, for exactly the reason you said, but I imagine there's also a "pink elephant" factor - whether or not something's funny, you might crack up just because everyone's watching, cracking up themselves and waiting for it to happen to you. I've definitely been told about incidents where someone doesn't even finish reading the title before completely losing it.
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In our sci-fi club, we have a fairly regular competition/gathering/silliness where we get together in a big circle and do a reading. As soon as you start laughing, your turn is over and you have to pass the story to the next reader.
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