0937 – Studio ‘Corpsing’

2023.07.26 – 0937 – Studio ‘Corpsing’

Corpsing

This is when you collapse in uncontrollable fits of laughter, perhaps from a perfectly innocuous remark by a colleague, and you can’t get over your ‘fit of the giggles’.

The BBC Radio Four newsreader Charlotte Green tells a great story on the website of the Guardian newspaper:-

“The most memorable occasion was during an eight o'clock news bulletin on the Today programme with Sue MacGregor and Jim Naughtie, both of whom have a very good sense of humour. The mood was relaxed, the bulletin was about to end and I was preparing to read my final story. The voice piece playing had 10 seconds to run and the green light in the studio had gone on to warn me that it was coming to an end. Suddenly the name of the head of Papua New Guinea's armed forces, Major General Jack Tuat (pronounced Twat) resonated round the room. It is an open secret that I have a ribald sense of humour. I knew immediately that I was going to have trouble getting through the next story, which to compound the problem was about a sperm whale. In the few seconds before the voice piece ended, Sue repeated sotto voce, almost with a sense of wonderment, "Jack Tuat". I caught her eye and from that moment knew I was lost. My voice rose and dropped like Dame Clara Butt on speed, the laughter broke free and the item about the stranded sperm whale came to a premature end. I was transported back to my 10-year-old self, ambushed by mirth because my best friend had farted, unexpectedly and explosively, during school prayers. Poor Jim managed to splutter the words, "Good luck to the whale", before heroically embarking on an interview with a man named Pratt, who in the general chaos of the moment he then inadvertently called Spratt. It was a moot point as to which one of us slid under the table first!” [1]

How should you get over that kind of situation? Look away from others in the room, get into another ‘zone’ mentally, read the words on the page while thinking of Great Aunt Agatha’s funeral, self-inflicted pain like digging your nails into your arm? These all work to some extent - but when the waves of laughter threaten to break the banks of broadcasting professionalism, there is very little you can do.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPtTqCNVdIE and another one, when normally straight-laced sounding Radio 4 presenter Charlotte Green can't keep a straight face after someone in the studio apparently whispers in her ear that the world's oldest sound recording sounds like 'a bee in a jar'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDojYyIWZ7A

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