To the woman at the 7:10 showing of The Big Sick in Maplewood. You know who you are.

I just wanted to thank you for adding an extra dimension to my movie going experience. Your incessant, ear-splitting cackling at every thing that resembled a joke (and some that decidedly did not) caused me to

a. Wonder, many times, at what was just said, since I couldn't hear the movie over you.

b. Wonder about how anyone could be so clueless to think that your laughter was not only appropriate, but not possibly an inconvenience to the people at the theater.

c. Wonder, yet yet again, how NO ONE in the theater (including me) had the gumption to tell you to calm down a bit.

All I ask is that you publicly post your upcoming movie schedule to make sure I'm never even in the same town as you.

Thank you.

For nothing.

db,

Sorry you weren't at the 4:25 showing with me.

Sorry I wasn't there as well. I'm getting less and less tolerant of people who interfere with my movie-going experience.

I frankly have never been as bothered by an audience member as I was tonight. It didn't help that her yelping maw was less than 5 feet from my ears.

You could have moved seats. 

Netflix rules.

actually, not really. The theater was quite full.  And anyway, given the size of the Maplewood theater's screening rooms, I couldn't have moved far enough away to render her any less noxious.

Gilgul said:

You could have moved seats. 

you are wrong. 

She does not know who she is. 

A person's laugh is just what it is. Some people laugh louder and easier than others. I get upset at talking which is titally controllable. 

1. You obviously didn't grow up in Brooklyn.

2. Why on earth would you think the cackling mystery woman would even see your post? 

exactly

ml1 said:

you are wrong. 

She does not know who she is. 

It wasn't really directed at her. It was more of a plaintive scream...

annielou said:

1. You obviously didn't grow up in Brooklyn.

2. Why on earth would you think the cackling mystery woman would even see your post? 

Nah - I don't buy that. At some point, a considerate person HAS to notice that they are ridiculously out of place within the group and do something to stop it. Civil society requires norms.  Hell, I had to learn to stop slurping my coffee and my soup.  (Though I still maintain that it's the only way to properly taste a liquid, especially a hot one. But I have given in to society's needs and wants.)

No exaggeration, half the time this woman laughed, she was the only person laughing, except for an occasional muffled laugh from her partner, who, if he had any sense of civility at all, must have been deeply embarrassed, and hopefully was deciding to never see a movie with this person again.

Gilgul said:

A person's laugh is just what it is. Some people laugh louder and easier than others. I get upset at talking which is titally controllable. 

She may have been high.

I dislike it when people laugh and applaud simultaneously

drummerboy, excluding the laughing,was it a good movie?

Manohla Dargis of NYT and others have given it strong reviews. It is more rom com than heavy drama.

Not much com, though. Also, weak milieu rework of hilarious "I'm Dying Up Here"...

-s.

It was excellent! It was actually laugh out loud funny quite a few times, and in general I thought the writing and acting was just great. Very enjoyable.

galileo said:

drummerboy, excluding the laughing,was it a good movie?

drummerboy said:

It was excellent! It was actually laugh out loud funny quite a few times, and in general I thought the writing and acting was just great. Very enjoyable.

Apparently so did the cackling woman

yeah, no.

This person obviously had no ability to discriminate on the basis of quality.  I imagine she cackles at every movie.

lord_pabulum said:

drummerboy said:

It was excellent! It was actually laugh out loud funny quite a few times, and in general I thought the writing and acting was just great. Very enjoyable.

Apparently so did the cackling woman

This first thing that came to my mind was that perhaps she has Asperger's Syndome or some other disability that interferes with her ability to understand social cues.

This thread reminded me of an experience many years ago that I had all but forgotten. I was at a movie theater in New York watching some relatively funny comedy (don't recall which). There was a young guy seated half a dozen rows in front of me with a truly obnoxious horsey laugh. He laughed at all the right places, but so loudly that it was distracting and annoying. When the movie ended and the lights came up, another young man walked over to the guy, said something I couldn't hear, and punched him in the face. Then he walked away. No one said a word. I remember being shocked by the incident, even in NY, where random violence wasn't exactly rare.

Interesting...

shoshannah said:

This first thing that came to my mind was that perhaps she has Asperger's Syndome or some other disability that interferes with her ability to understand social cues.

Gilgul said:

A person's laugh is just what it is. Some people laugh louder and easier than others. I get upset at talking which is titally controllable. 

This.  Not everyone has a polite titter when they find something funny.  Talkers annoy the f*ck out of me, laughers, not so much. My maternal grandmother used to give full volume "advice" to characters on the screen ("Honey, why do you keep going back with him, you deserve so much better! Find a man who treats you better.").  My mother finally stopped agreeing to go to the movies with her out of embarrassment. 

shoshannah said:

This first thing that came to my mind was that perhaps she has Asperger's Syndome or some other disability that interferes with her ability to understand social cues.

Somewhat tangental to this, but this reminds me of when I saw "Traffic" (the Soderburgh version) in the theater with an old friend of mine.  There's a scene where one of the protagonists is in drug rehab and during a group session one of the other patients is sharing and making a long speech about his life and problems with addiction.  My friend, who has struggled for decades with alcoholism and is a frequent AA attendee, was laughing hysterically during the whole monologue, so much that a few others in the theater turned around to stare.  Afterwards, he whispered to me that the monologue captured every stock AA meeting cliche he has ever heard, so much so that it was almost (intentionally or not) a parody of an AA speech.  So from his particular frame of reference, he found that part of the movie hilarious, even if no one else there did.