Painfully loud laughing at the theater

I know I'm a bit anal, but I hope I'm not alone here. This has happened to me only a few times in the theater, but it happened twice in one day last week, so I was inspired to bring it up here. This thread is probably nothing more than empathetic commiserating, but I'll post anyway.

Have you ever encountered an audience member who laughed so loudly or so shrilly, it actually detracted from your enjoyment of the performance? I'm talking about someone whose laugh is so loud, you think "either this person is the most oblivious person in the world, obnoxiously wants the whole world to know how much he is enjoying it, or is purposefully trying to blow out my ear drums."

At last year's performance of Pirates of Penzance at City Centre, the woman behind me laughed so boisterously, I would involuntarily wince every time she screamed in laughter. It got to the point that, because I knew the jokes from having been in the show, I anticipated them and hoped they would land flat or be delivered poorly so that my eardrums wouldn't hurt again.

At 9 to 5 last week, I was behind a similar laugher. He was from Tennessee and a loud talker during the intermission (they were criticizing Megan's accent from being from the wrong part of Texas, which I found amusing--Texan linguistic experts), but nothing to justify the ear-piercing yelps he produced.

Each time, I tried to look back at them to give them a hint that they were being disruptive, but it never worked. And I can't think of a way to ask "excuse me, can you stop laughing so loudly?" without sounding insane, rude, or both.

Now, I love enjoying the community experience at a comedy, and laughing with your fellow audience members is a great part. But when another causes you physical pain, it makes it quite difficult!

the best/worst part of this is when the audience starts to laugh at the person who is laughing in the audience!! this has happened to me at several shows before... quite hiarious and sometimes it actually shuts the person up!!!

I don't know if anyone remembers WithoutaTrace's saga of Stripes and Purple...

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"I don't know if anyone remembers WithoutaTrace's saga of Stripes and Purple"

I'm waiting for the film to come out.

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^ Laughing a great deal is usually either an indicator of being extremely simple or extremely smart. For you, it is almost definitely the latter. The loudness is just an unfortunate side effect.

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I have a friend who has a very loud laugh and it can be very distracting. We saw a show together and happened to be sitting front row center at a theatre with no pit. So we were RIGHT THERE. I was so embarrassed because they had to have heard it and it had to be distracting to THEM.

This happened to me with a friend at Jersey Boys (and it was her first time seeing the show -- my 6th or 7th). I had to figure out how to nicely tell her at intermission. Luckily, she took it well. But I was secretly hoping through most of Act 1 that someone else would set her straight.

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I don't know if I've ever actually had this happen...but I feel like I could have done it......woops.
The worst is when you understand a reference that the majority of the audience doesn't, so although you laugh normal level you end up being obnoxiously loud compared to everyone else....this totally happened to me in [title of show]. During one of the Into the Woods references most of the audience just smiled to themselves and chuckled while I like...audibly cackled. Whoops.

Oh..and I have a friend who's MOM has a ridiculously loud laugh. She always comes to see me in shows and I always have to hum silently while the other cast members discuss that crazy lady in the audience.

It always seems like there's one person in the audience who has the most obnoxious and loud laugh ever, and they almost always have a laugh that seems really fake. Sort of a "look and me, I get the subtle humor" forced laugh.

I ALWAYS want to punch this person. You're not impressing anybody!

I have a pretty high tolerance level when it comes to laughing, but there was this one time in particular when it was completely disrupting. This guy was in the audience at [title of show] and he was constantly doing this horribly loud and shrieky "look at me laugh." It took me out of the moment many times and you could tell that the other audience members were getting peeved at the guy.

I can't think of any time I've noticed anyone with a too loud laugh, and now I'm scared it's because it's me!

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I am a loud laugher.I know it. There are way worse things. When something really strikes me as funny, I sorta scream, then laugh. It just comes out. I don't do it on purpose. I didn't wake up one morning and say, "Damn, I am gonna be a loud laugher just so I can annoy the piss out of someone".
I will be sewing the scarlet L on all of my clothing so that I can be identified. You have been warned :)

I was in front row Balcony to see Blithe Spirit. There was a guy who laughed next to me so loud I wanted to throw him off the balcony.

For some reason a random select group of people always piss me off but for no reason at all. So I think of them as trash and get through the performance. But I'll save that for another day

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Oh man! I'm one of those people, and at the theater, I just try not to laugh by putting my face in my hands and just smiling a lot. I was never sure if it was THAT big of a deal, but I guess I was doing something right!

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