The Witty Stride

– Satyakam Ray

Imagine hurrying to the office, already an hour late. You live on the 8th floor of a skyscraper, and the only way to communicate downwards is via the elevator. Without delay, you go inside the lift and, absent-mindedly, look at the phone, checking the work schedule. Two minutes later, you are still on the same floor because you forgot to press the ground button. Someone familiar with your floor opens the lift. He finds you in that meandering state. He rubs salt in the wound. His first expression would be a burst of smirking, fake laughter, while you wear a sheepish grin.

You are in a boring office presentation. You wish to go to the cafeteria as soon as possible. You want to end the monotony. Out of the blue, you get a message from someone you admire, and you blush, thinking about them. You secretly watch the message and chuckle as if it were an amatory joke to pass the time. You blush again!

Both incidents invoke different forms of laughter. The root cause of the two events is embarrassment and shyness. Linguistically speaking, the person wearing a sheepish grin wants to hide away from the world. They don’t want to take full responsibility for their actions. It’s a sign of acquiescence, stupidity, and timidity. The embarrassed laugh is well-timed. It avoids the consequences of a person’s mortifying and bizarre behavior. This can happen due to absent-mindedness, a lack of clarity about what they are doing, or ignorance.

Blushing is the reddening of a person’s face due to passion, embarrassment, shyness, or romantic stimulation. A blushing chuckle occurs when someone is smitten with another person. They might get a surprise gift, a text message, or an unexpected visit from that person. It’s primarily involuntary and uncontrollable. Charles Darwin wrote about complex emotional states in Chapter 13 of his 1872 book. This book is titled The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. He explored self-awareness, shame, shyness, modesty, and blushing. These states include self-awareness, embarrassment, shyness, modesty, and blushing. He described blushing as “… the most peculiar and human of all expressions.” // Source- Wikipedia.

Crozier hypothesized various psycho physiological mechanisms for blushing. 

According to Crozier, “An explanation that emphasizes the blush’s visibility proposes that when we feel shame, we communicate our emotion to others and in doing so, we send an important signal to them. To blush at innuendo is to show awareness of its implications and to display modesty that conveys that you are not brazen or shameless.”

Reasons for such behaviors: Many offbeat behaviors can be explained by baser social instincts. These behaviors also reflect our outward personality to our sober, civilized society. A basic norm refers to what is expected and what is considered eccentric. If anyone accidentally crosses the thin line between civil behavior and abnormality, they first look around. Their immediate reaction is to check if anyone is watching. They do this because of a lingering fear of being mocked by their peers. Family members and friends may also join in if they are caught in the act.

We are only human beings, prone to errors and misjudgments. As such, we must act sheepishly or laugh off the situation, as it happens to everybody.

A blushing chuckle is more natural than a sheepish grin. Sometimes this amuses other silent spectators. They are absorbed in their undiluted joyous behavior. If you happen to witness someone blushing, it’s better to leave them alone. Avoid making unwanted comments or poking fun. We react strongly to different life events and are accountable for our actions.

Types of laughter: 

We discuss the subtle difference between a sheepish grin and a blushing chuckle. It seems pertinent to delve into other forms of laughter.

• grin- smile broadly
• giggle- laugh lightly, but uncontrollably- usually a silly laugh
• chuckle- laugh quietly
• Smiling from ear to ear, smiling widely due to extreme happiness
• gales of laughter- a lot of loud laughter
• Be all smiles – look cheerful and pleased, especially in contrast to your earlier mood.
• mirth- laughter due to amusement
• The Pan Am smile- a fake

An example of a sheepish grin is when one person is forced to wear one.

• You are hurrying into the lift, which is already full of people. Finally, someone points out that the utmost limit has already been reached. Everyone directs you to go outside and wait for your turn. At best, you can wear a polite, sheepish grin!
• Anyone familiar with old bikes without an autostart choice knows this can be an embarrassment. Suppose you kick the bike repeatedly to start the engine without fuel. Someone from the street points it out to you.
• Inside the restaurant, cinema hall, or public place, you mistakenly approach some stranger from behind, assuming he’s your friend. When you realize your mistake, all you have to do is apologize, wearing a sheepish grin.
• As you approach 50, you’re likely to go completely bald. You conceal this fact from everybody else by wearing a wig. While riding a bike, the wig accidentally falls in the society parking lot with many onlookers on a dreamy day. Now, you have two options. You can wear the wig and be John Cena ASAP. Alternatively, you can wear your best sheepish grin and reluctantly drive away toward home.
• One of your uncles takes a selfie of the whole family at a festival. He is confused about where to tap or click on the phone.

More examples of the Blushing Chuckle:

• If the person you love proposes in a public place, they might choose a restaurant or stadium. In such cases, they may get down on one knee. The best response will be a blushing, chuckle-worthy smile.
• Unexpected birthday surprise or celebration over a weekend
• You are going on a plane and discover that your seat is next to your crush, who’s already seated! (more of a wicked smile, I suppose)

I would like to share an amusing anecdote. It involves one of my best friends and concludes the sheepish-grin-versus-blushing-chuckle rigmarole. The story’s protagonist, Pradeep, is slightly overweight, weighing approximately 95-100 kg. Once, many friends gathered at his house to celebrate his birthday. After the cake-cutting, Pradeep sat in his favorite chair, which, for some reason, had been slightly damaged beforehand. Incapable of bearing Pradeep’s weight, the chair broke into pieces. In this process, Pradeep also fell to the ground, making a loud crash! While he was wearing his best sheepish grin, we were all rolling on the floor, literally, after gales of laughter! We forgot about humanity for 5 minutes. To this day, he’s still being mocked in group chats and on live video!