Laughter

I don't know why, but my friend told me something last night that just kind of stuck with me, but maybe not for the reason you'd think. "lol Jessica Simpson's dog was killed last night" is what he told me. At first I was horrified. "Why is that funny?" If one of my dogs was killed I'd be crushed, and I'm sure Miss Simpson was as well. I then realized that the "lol" was meant to be ironic, as in "she doesn't care what other people think of her, so why should we care about her feelings?" I am beginning to hate the "word" "lol". It's too hard to figure out what meaning it carries.

The "word" is literally an acronym, meaning "laughing out loud". If I'm chatting with you online, and I tell you a joke, you say "lol" as a way of expressing that on your computer, as you read my joke, you laughed. However, this doesn't say much about how you're laughing. Are you "giggling like a schoolgirl"? Did you smirk and go "heh"? Did you chuckle to yourself for a second, then stop? Are you laughing like a drunk person at Mardi Gras? I have no way of knowing. In fact, when chatting, if I literally laugh at something, I have started typing "HAHAHAHA" as a way of letting the person know I am actually laughing. People use "lol" to describe merely the tone of voice they're using to say what they're saying! That doesn't work for a conversation; I have no idea that that's how you're using it! "lol did you see Jessica Simpson's dog died?" Are you laughing at the fact that her dog died? Are you laughing at Jessica Simpson's reaction to her dog dying? Are you laughing at the dog itself? Did you even laugh? I think far less people sit cackling to themself at their computers as use the acronym "lol" on a consistent basis.

It's getting so bad that "lol" has made its way into real life! I've even done it myself sometimes! Your friend tells you something funny, and you just go "haha LOL!" That's not right! I have to physically restrain myself from saying "lol" to another human in person; it's a poor substitute for actual laughter. This country (maybe world; I only live here so I can only give this perspective) is turning into a nation of sarcastic non-laughers. Can we please can the "lol" and bring back physical laughter? We will all be better off without you, "lol". Now scram, see?

[Just as an even better view of how much this has infiltrated our culture, I just ended my blog post with a joke referring to the old-timey movie bad guys from the '20s who would say "yeah, see...ya gotta scram, see?" To illustrate that it was a joke, I don't have to do anything; if you know what I'm talking about, you already laughed. However, I actually typed "LOL" after the end of the joke to try to push the joke on you, when in reality I didn't laugh at the joke myself. Obviously I deleted the LOL, but the point remains: it IS possible to make a humorous statement without laughing yourself. Try to remember that the next time you're tempted to use "lol" within an online chat, a Facebook comment, or even worse, in real life.]

Brad