Here’s a little piece of frivolity I was reminded of this morning when responding to a comment by Joel Wagoner about the Polish composer Mieczysław Karłowicz, some of whose music I featured yesterday on “The Lost Chord.”
Joel, a longtime listener to my radio programs on several stations over the better part of three decades, reminded me that I had introduced him to Karłowicz’s music. He also recalled that the composer’s death, in an avalanche, was memorialized in a symphonic poem (“Kościelec”) by Wojiech Kilar.
This brought to mind an incident that took place, on the air, before an open microphone, in defiance of this most somber of biographical details.
I was introducing some of Karłowicz’s music and talking about the composer’s gloomy disposition and pessimistic nature; then, for whatever reason, I got to the part about the avalanche and I started laughing. The poetic justice of the manner of his demise just struck me as hilarious. I tried to fight it, but you know how it is – it’s like laughing in church or at a funeral or during a serious moment in a play – the more inappropriate it seemed, the harder it was to suppress it.
When you’re at the control board, you’re always supposed to pot down for a cough or a sneeze or to clear your throat – at least, you do if you’re a professional – but what do you do when you can’t stop laughing? I suppose there are worse things. If anyone was offended, I never heard about it.
It’s not the only time this happened to me on the air. Another time, I remember, someone called me up to ask, “Ross, what’s so funny?” I don’t remember now, but I’m sure it was something else inappropriate that popped into my head, and I couldn’t tell her.
This doesn’t bode well for my impending years in the old age home, when, in my senility, all my inhibitions fall away, and everything out my mouth is raw id.
Inappropriate Laughter Before an Open Microphone
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10 responses
Comments
10 responses to “Inappropriate Laughter Before an Open Microphone”
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Mather Pfeiffenberger When I saw the title, I laughed before I even hit play. 😄
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It’s a very human response— you remember the Mary Tyler Moore episode when Chuckles the Clown dies in an absurdly appropriate manner.
On another note, thank you for your respect for Polish pronunciation. It was a great program ❤️
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Claire Pula I try, but I am not always successful. I wrote a blog post about that once, “The Perils of Pronunciation,” and how as a radio host, one sometimes has to walk the line between being scrupulously correct and being understood. Still, there’s a difference between being intelligible and being plain lazy about figuring out what a certain combination of letters should sound like and which syllable should be stressed. As for the MTM episode, as a matter of fact, Mather Pfeiffenberger just posted a link to it in his comment!
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Maybe you were thinking of Irwin Allen’s Avalanche.
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Don’t worry, Ross, you’ll blend right in, or, nobody will notice you, or if they do, nobody will care. Beware of the applesauce. They put crushed pills in there.
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Thanks for the memory; I’m laughing out loud reading this post. Long ago, my choir members and I had processed up to the altar at a solemn moment when something caught our funny bone Did you ever try to sing and stifle your laughter? Very nice picture of you BTW!
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Dolores Cascarino Oh that funny bone, it does cause problems. But thank goodness for it!
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Reminds me of the time I burped loudly on the air back at WFLN, immediately after opening the mic. I got a call right away from a listener who thought it was the most hysterical thing they ever heard. From that day, though, I swore off drinking carbonated beverages during an airshift.
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Mark Pinto LOL! Glad I missed that one! I might have been in a stupor from all that after-midnight minimalism you used to play, when working your way through the station library. 😉
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