Holding in Laughter

Perhaps you need a drink of water.

Anri: (stifled laughter) I'm not laughing... (snickers) I'm...not...

Lilith: (indignant) I can hear you, heathen!

— The Demon Girl Next Door

Laughter isn't always welcome. There are situations where someone might try to avoid laughing, for a variety of reasons.

A parent might witness their young child do something that is amusing, but inappropriate, and suppress their laughter to avoid accidentally giving the impression that the behavior is alright.

The person suppressing a laugh might be concerned about hurting someone's feelings or offending them if they laugh at a situation.

The social situation could mean that laughter would be a social faux pas and people want to avoid doing so openly.

This might also happen if a character is nervously laughing and trying to hide it to save face. This character in question might have heard something unintentionally dirty-sounding.

The subject of amusement might be in a position of authority, and could reprimand being laughed at by depriving someone of their job...or worse.

Usually played for laughs, the person attempting to suppress their laughter will typically fail, usually spectacularly. In fact, it could lead to Contagious Laughter, where everyone ends up laughing. That is if it's not already a Universal Group Reaction, and everyone is trying to avoid laughing. Once that happens, expect at least one person to either claim that they're trying not to laugh, or even deny that they're laughing, even as they laugh loudly.

Some people might try to make a discreet exit, where they will then be heard laughing loudly once they're out of sight, or they may successfully keep the characters in-universe from seeing them laugh, but reveal to the audience by their laughter that they're Not So Stoic.

Compare Corpsing, which is where a character in-story is not supposed to be laughing, but the actor/actress playing them is struggling to keep a straight face (so named because the worst time for an actor to get a case of the giggles is if they're playing a corpse).

May lead to someone acknowledging that the situation is Actually Pretty Funny.

The opposite of Trying Not to Cry. Truth in Television for many people, particularly those who think of something funny at a bad time (like in the middle of class). May occur during bouts of Familial Chiding.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Azumanga Daioh: In one set of strips set during December 2000, Kagura tries to keep Tomo from spoiling Chiyo's presumed belief in Santa and scrambles to explain how he can deliver gifts to everyone around the world. When Chiyo reveals that she already knows that "Santa" was just her dad, Sakaki has an Imagine Spot based on the conversation, in which said father is the yellow catlike creature from a dream she had at the start of the year. The thought is so funny to Sakaki that she presses her hand over her mouth and shudders holding in her laughter, with Osaka asking if something's the matter.
• BanG Dream!: In one of the single panel comics, Yukina and Sayo have been prohibited from discussing anything band or music related. Cue the two of them stiffly asking each other about school, and Lisa, behind them, stifling her laughter.
• Chihayafuru: During Mizusawa's first regional tournament, Dr. Harada is watching Chihaya's match in the finals, and asks another coach how many readers are there. The coach informs Harada that it's just the one reader due to it being high school qualifiers. Harada blushes and claps a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing, as he knows that with Chihaya's exceptional hearing, after five matches she knows every nuance and cadence of the reader's voice, giving her a sizable advantage.
• The Demon Girl Next Door: Lilith takes over Yuko's body to try and trash Momo. Unfortunately for her, she's bound by the limits of Yuko's frail body, and fails spectacularly. Anri and Sion are both in the corner, barely suppressing their laughter. Anri even outright denies she's laughing between stifled laughter. And Momo turns her back and claps a hand over her mouth.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: When Tanjirou is put on trial by the Hashira for harboring his demon sister Nezuko, Sanemi repeatedly stabs her and tries to tempt her into tasting his blood to prove that she should be killed. A very angry Tanjirou headbutts Sanemi for this even with his arms tied behind his back. This looks so comical that Mitsuri tries to stifle her laughter even as the other Hashira give her strange looks.
  Mitsuri: (thinking) You mustn't laugh! You mustn't, you mustn't, you mustn't!
• Interviews with Monster Girls: Yuki stifled her laughter when Hikari, trying to determine whose arm is best for chewing on, describes Takahashi-Sensei's arm as "hard, thick, and she'd get hair in her teeth."
• In This Corner of the World: When a military officer mistakes Suzu sketching the battleships in Kure's harbor for espionage and lectures the Houjou family about it, everyone except Suzu has very tense looks on their faces. After the officer leaves, they burst out laughing since they were really just trying not to laugh at the very idea of the officer mistaking someone as absent-minded as Suzu for a spy.
• K-On!:
  • During a bath scene, Ritsu ponders if she styled her hair differently, that if it would make her seem more mature. Yui partially submerges herself to hold back her laugh, but eventually laughs out loud at the thought of the "Bangs monster" changing her hair.
  • Azusa tries not to laugh at Ritsu, turning her back on her. But her cheeks puff out and there's a squeaking noise, which only succeeds in irritating Ritsu to no end.
• Last Hope (2018): In episode 17, when Jay introduces Queenie disguised as Cecile's Body Double, her Bad "Bad Acting" makes Cain and Gren almost burst out laughing.
• Combined with Underestimating Badassery in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid when Einhart is talking to Vivio and expresses surprise that the latter's mothers (both of whom are incredibly powerful combat mages) will be taking part in the upcoming mock battle since she's only ever seen them in a domestic setting. During all of this, Nove can be seen walking behind them and valiantly trying to avoid bursting into laughter at Einhart's ignorance.
• My-HiME: Downplayed. At the end of episode 9, Natsuki is forced to Show Some Leg to flag down a ride. Unfortunately, the car she flags down is full of people she knows, including two teachers, her bestie Shizuru (who's secretly crushing on her and is the head of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council) and the Vice-President of the Student Council, Reito. Reito actually tries to hide that he's laughing at the situation, while Shizuru says with barely concealed amusement, "That was quite the little show you gave us."
• My Love Story!!: Takeo is the only person who has ever succeeded in making his friend Suna laugh. Once in awhile Suna while try to hide it.
  • In the first episode we get a downplayed example when Takeo tries to be a neighborhood watch unto himself after hearing a creep was stalking grade school kids. Instead he gets Mistaken for Pedophile by the cops and told to move on. His best friend, Suna, tries to hold in laughter for all of a second before just giving in and laughing loudly.
  • When trying to plan activities for Rinko's birthday with Takeo, the locations that they plan on remind Suna of amusing stories from their youth, and he recalls them while trying to contain his laughter, as he's trying to be serious about the planning. He's not particularly successful, and Takeo notes with a mix of embarrassment and irritation that Suna remembers a lot of things.
  • Takeo asks Suna to help him train for a practice exam for Murisaki, the school Rinko plans on attending. Suna barely holds it together as he quizzes Takeo on vocabulary words and instead of giving definitions, Takeo acts them out. Then comes the punchline for the whole episode; Murisaki is an All-Girl's University, and Suna knew it all along. When Takeo discovers this, Suna drops any pretext of trying to hide his laughter.
• My-Otome: Natsuki and Nao are trying to get to the capitol of, Aires, an allied nation, to ask for aid, and they're having to hitchhike. Nao, deciding to "help", uses her knives to slash off Natsuki's pants and panties, exposing her as a vehicle approaches. Unfortunately, the vehicle was military police, and they're arrested for indecent exposure. When Haruka Armitage, the Otome for Aires and a former classmate of Natsuki's, hears about the incident she bursts out laughing, while President Yukino Chrysant is more discreet about hiding her amusement with the situation.
• One Piece: In the Wano Arc, Orochi cites the prophecy that states the allies of the deceased Kozuki Oden will rise to seek vengeance twenty years after his demise, meaning this year. Orochi's followers all think he's ridiculously over-paranoid and are barely able to stifle bursting into laughter at him believing such an outrageous legend (because he would kill them for insubordination). Unfortunately, a little girl isn't able to keep her laughter in check, which infuriates Orochi, who immediately tries to kill her.
• Pokémon: The Original Series: In "Pokémon Fashion Flash", Ash and Brock struggle to hold in their laughter after seeing the results of the "makeover" Team Rocket gave Misty.
• Re-Kan!: Inoue is trying, and failing, not to laugh when she hears that their Fiery Red Head former delinquent classmate Esumi used to be nicknamed "The Red-headed Messiah" for beating up some local toughs. She hides herself behind the curtains of the classroom windows to try and hide her laughter.
• Snow White with the Red Hair:
  • When Shirayuki is taking an exam to be a court herbalist, she and Zen are locked in overnight, where they are found by Garak the next morning. When Shirayuki reveals that an herb was incorrectly planted and she'd moved them all (merely noting the error would have been sufficient to pass the exam), Garak demands to know if Shirayuki received any help from Prince Zen. Shirayuki nonchalantly says it made sense to her, as the herbs might save Zen's life one day. Zen barely manages to keep from laughing loudly at this.
  • In the above scene, Garak notes that Zen has carte blanche to assign duties without being challanged and could simply request Shirayuki be made an herbalist without question. Zen notes that Shirayuki is too proud to do so, and he'd be afraid of making her angry, which Shirayuki says she will take as a compliment. Garak actually has to stop herself from laughing at their banter.
  • After being subjected to a hypnotic drug, Mitsuhide is acting out of characters, to say the least. He bumps Kiki with the door, then apologizes to her, holding her hand, saying "Oh, Kiki, I'm so incredibly sorry. Did I cause any injury to your lovely and glorious hand?" Kiki gives him a very put out look, and slaps him over the nose, saying "Morning." Behind Prince Zen, Obi, who witnessed this, has his back to them, is visibly shaking with his arms wrapped around his trunk.
• Wasteful Days of High School Girls: Episode 9, after "Loli" has butchered her own eyebrows trying to be fashionable, "Baka" and "Wota" are both trying their hardest not to burst out laughing. Lily calls them out on their insensitivity, only for "Baka" to point out that Lily is barely holding it in herself. Lily, shaking badly with suppressed laughter, states that she's holding nothing in.
• WORKING!!: In season three, after Satou has asked Yachiyo out for a drink, and Yachiyo, who has never been drinking before asks Kozue for advice, Satou notes that Souma is pounding the wall trying hard to hold in his laughter at the entire situation. Souma is notable for being a Shipper on Deck for Yachiyo and Satou, but also for deliberately instigating situations For the Lulz.
• YuruYuri: In the sixth chapter, Kyouko determines Akari lacks presence and holds an intervention to decide on her new character traits. They come up with an invisible girl who has Torpedo Tits and makes the sound effect "Akariii~n!" Yui and Chinatsu double over, quivering, as they try not to laugh.

Comic Books

• Generation X: Jubilee has been captured by Operation Zero Tolerance. She's been bound and is being forced to watch as Bastion tortures members of the X-Men. She watches tearfully as they electrocute Wolverine, who then begs them to stop. Bastion hears what he assumes is crying from Jubilee, but it's actually her trying to hold in her laughter, until she is flat out laughing in Bastion's face.
  Jubilee: You almost had me there, huh. You almost convinced me it was the real Wolvie getting fried. But ya had to go and push it... too far. Too flamin', freakin', flappin' far.
  Bastion: Oh really? How so?
  Jubilee: It was the "Please Stop." Any Wolverine I know would die before he'd beg.
• X-Men: X-Men (1991) #30, which saw the marriage of Scott and Jean, at the end of the issue, Xavier finds an envelope amongst his papers, addressed to him. It's from Logan, making Xavier one of only three people Logan had left letters for after he left the X-Mansion (the other two being Jubilee and Jean). Xavier's is the shortest of all the letters that Logan left,and it's direct and to the point. "Dear Chuck, Lighten up. Your old pal, Logan." Xavier frowns and gives a "humph". Then a "heh heh". The issue closes out with Xavier laughing loudly and longley at the sentiment.

Comic Strips

• Calvin and Hobbes:
  • In one strip, Calvin tries writing a letter to Santa, with Hobbes reading over his shoulder. Calvin gets as far as "Dear Santa, Hi, it's me, Calvin. This year I've been extra good, so..." when Hobbes makes a "PBTBT" noise and slaps his hand/paw over his mouth and snorts. Calvin suggests with a scowl that maybe Hobbes needs a drink of water.
  • In one strip, Calvin's father tells Calvin to be quiet while he's in the car. Hobbes and Calvin then start making funny faces at each other and let out stifled giggles until Calvin's father screams at Calvin to knock it off.
• In this Garfield strip, Jon has a blind date with a woman whose name turns out to be Euphemia. When Jon hears it, he tries to hold back laughter but fails and falls under the table, while she gets offended and leaves.

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust: When Asuka overhears Shinji on the phone, promising their guardian that "we'll get to bed early, both of us," she has to clap both hands over her mouth to stop herself from bursting out laughing and giving away their Secret Relationship. Fortunately, he hangs up a moment later and she's free to cut loose.
  Asuka: Hahahahaha! Oh, yeah, we're both getting to bed soon! Third, I didn't think you had it in you to try sneaking jokes past Misato like that! Hahahaha!
• The Dragon and the Butterfly: To Hiccup, a witch is simply a woman with magic powers. To Isabela, it's a mortal insult. To Mirabel, every time she hears Hiccup call her oh-so-perfect sister a witch, it's one step closer to completely losing control and giving away her hiding place by bursting into hysterical laughter.
  She was currently holding a hand over her mouth to keep the noise from being heard, while her eyes watered with mirth.
• Inter Nos:
  • In an early chapter, Shizuru, who is The Ace, is intrigued by Natsuki's prowess with a weapon known as a daos, a sickle on one end tethered to a weight by a strong chain at the other end. Trying to learn to use the weapon, Shizuru nearly brains herself with the weight, only to see Natsuki staring at her, shaking, her hand shoved firmly in her mouth. Shizuru realizes that Natsuki is laughing at her, and calls her out, "Oh, you wicked girl!" This only makes Natsuki finally lose it and laugh openly with a loud braying laughter.
  • When Shizuru's cousin, Shizuma joins them in Argus, the silver haired woman, known for sleeping with half the married women in Hime, and only because she hasn't gotten to the other half, yet, decides to test Natsuki's fidelity to her cousin. She thinks Natsuki has failed when she elicits a gasp, until she realizes the girl is shaking with suppressed laughter, with little snorts escaping her nose. "You," Natsuki laughs at last, "...Are her cousin." Shizuma decides she likes Natsuki, after all.
• Lost Latte: In "Home is Where the Heart Is", Latte is pretending to be a stuffed animal so that she won't get kicked off the bus. A baby starts to pet her neck, tickling her. She tries to keep it in, but it's more than she can stand and she begins to laugh loudly. As such, the annoyed bus driver orders her and the Cures off the bus.
• The Rigel Black Chronicles: After Harry arranges in French for a waiter to cut Caelum's next bottle of wine with water, Caelum notices the different flavour, but is easily persuaded that it's merely a better vintage, and accepts a compliment on his "discerning palate". Harry can barely avoid bursting into laughter.
• In the epilogue of Ships Ahoy!, Olive has to fight off a bout of laughter that comes from Oscar's many mess-ups during his interview, much to the chagrin of the cameraman who keeps shooting her dirty looks. She's barely holding on by the time the cameraman calls "cut", whereupon she and Otto let out their laughter. It's all but stated that Olive attempting to hold in her laughter, and subsequently failing to, ruined the initial take of the interview, as the cameraman remarks that he doesn't have time to film another one.
• Strangers at Drakeshaugh: Upon seeing Ginny easily humiliate the "alpha" mother at school, Jacqui goes into a coughing fit.
  It was either that or burst out laughing, and I still wasn’t ready to laugh at Mary in public.

Films — Animated

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Right before they dive into some ruins together, Milo's trousers get inflated due to the air, causing Kida to cover her mouth so she doesn't laugh at him.
• The Boss Baby:
  • When Ted Sr. mentions that Tim used to carry around a stuffed sheep named Lam-Lam when he was younger, the Boss Baby visibly stifles a chuckle.
  • Janice gives Tim a Full-Name Ultimatum, mentioning his Embarrassing Middle Name of Leslie in the process. The Boss Baby snickers, but tries to hide it to conceal the fact that he's a Brainy Baby who can understand her.
• Cinderella III: A Twist in Time: Drizella has to hold back a laugh when Anastasia has to show off her huge feet to try on the glass slipper again.
• Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers: After Captain Pete promotes Mickey, Donald and Goofy to Musketeers as part of his plot to usurp Princess Minnie, the three mistakenly think her lady-in-waiting Daisy is a villain and attack her. Amused by them showing their incompetence already, Pete tries to stifle his laughter, but composes himself when he notices Minnie watching him.
  Pete: (clears throat) Um.. Uh, you'll have to forgive them, Your Highness. They're like a well-oiled machine. It's wound just a little too tight.
• Paperman: When one of the pages in George's hand is blown from the stack onto Meg's face, he retrieves it, looking mildly embarrassed. Meg looks at him a moment, then notices that her lipstick left a kiss mark on the page, and briefly stifles a laugh, leaving an adorable crooked smile on her face.

Films — Live-Action

• Florence Foster Jenkins: Cosme hears Florence's Giftedly Bad singing, accepts a ludicrously good job offer to be her backup pianist, leaves her home, and makes it to the elevator before breaking out in hysterical giggles.
• Four Weddings and a Funeral: in the second wedding, the priest officiating it (Rowan Atkinson) is doing it for the first time, and therefore very nervous. During the ceremony, he constantly makes blunders (in the vows, the bride and groom's names, and even during prayers!). Several attendants, friends of the happy couple, can hardly stiffle their laughter.
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: When Draco Malfoy introduces himself to Harry, Ron Weasley holds in his laughter after he heard his ridiculous name.
• Mary Poppins: Discussed by Albert, Mary's uncle, in his song "I Love to Laugh". He mentions that some people, who he dubs "squeakelers", make squeaking sounds in an attempt not to laugh if they find something funny.
• Monty Python's Life of Brian: After Brian has been caught and taken before Pilate, he claims, based on what his mother told him, that he's a Roman citizen as his father was a Centurion named Naughtius Maximus. The lead Centurion informs Pilate that it's a joke name, like Sillius Soddus or Biggus Dickus. Pilate then states matter-of-factly that he had a friend in Rome named Biggus Dickus. Cue all the Roman soldiers trying not to laugh, and failing miserably, prompting Pilate to sentence at least one of them to the Arena as a Gladiator, though the man is still laughing too hysterically after being led out. Supposedly combined with Enforced Method Acting with the extras playing the soldiers told they wouldn't be paid if they laughed.
• A League of Their Own: In the famous "There's no crying in baseball!" scene, when the umpire wanders over to find out what's going on, he lectures Jimmy that he should treat the women playing for him with more respect. As the umpire turns around to walk away, Jimmy responds, "Did anyone ever tell you, you look like a penis with a little hat on?" In the background, Betty is covering her mouth to keep from laughing.
• School Ties: Cleary, the new French teacher and the director of the dorm the students live in, interrupts the football team listening to rock-n-roll by telling them there will be no tolerance of "jungle music" while he's in charge. As he's leaving, David starts making animal noises, Connors barely stifles a laugh, and the rest of his classmates/teammates are either grinning or holding down their laughter.

Literature

• Beware of Chicken:
  • Upon being served a "delicacy" of Gold Grade rice that he knows is from Jin's own farm, Yun Ren has so much trouble stifling his laughter that his rice goes down the wrong way and sends him into a coughing fit.
  • Meiling realises at her wedding that the groom has taken the boulder that they were sitting on to share their first kiss, and placed it on the farm, so they can sit there whenever they want, and wants to laugh at the absurdity, but it would be out of place. Nonetheless, they both end up in giggles.
    We were technically supposed to be calm and dignified here, but she couldn't help it. She clapped her hand over her mouth as her shoulders heaved with mirth.
• Big Nate: In In a Class by Himself, Mr. Galvin confiscates Nate's pen and puts it in his pocket, but the ink leaks out of it and leaves a huge stain on his shirt. Nate tries not to laugh, but bursts out guffawing, and the annoyed Mr. Galvin sends him to detention afterwards.
• Dear Dumb Diary: The book My Pants are Haunted! begins with Jamie and her mother arguing over fashion trends at her school.
  Jamie's narration: I told her that I think she can't possibly know how important trends can be, and she said that clothes were just as important when she was in middle school. Then I said that I understood how she probably always tried her best to make a good impression on Fred and Wilma and Barney and the whole gang down at the tar pit, but times had changed.
  Mom: Just how do you think that makes me feel?
  Jamie: Stupid?
  Jamie's narration: Turns out that Mom had a different answer in mind, and I'll have a little time to figure out what it was since I'm here in my bedroom about five hours earlier than usual. I also think that Dad sitting there trying not to laugh might have made things worse.
  (illustration of Dad covering his mouth and trying not to laugh while soup is spewing out his ears)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In Hard Luck, whenever the Heffley family is having a reunion, Greg always tries not to laugh when something silly happens. One time, when his great-grandfather blew out the candles on his birthday cake, his dentures went flying out of his mouth, and Greg tried not to laugh, especially since his mouth was full of chocolate milk. He tried to think of something sad, but all he could come up with was Sweetie the dog wearing a sweater. Then he thought about Sweetie farting in his dad's face and laughed so hard he spewed chocolate milk everywhere.
• Feet of Clay: When the dwarf Cheery Littlebottom (daughter of Jolly, granddaughter of Beaky) joins the Watch, she's surprised that the stone-faced Commander Vimes doesn't so much as twitch at the mention of her name. Vimes sees her out, then closes himself in his office, muffles his head in his coat, and starts cackling.
• Harry Potter:
  • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dudley tries on his Smeltings uniform, which consists of Impossibly Tacky Clothes. While Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia explode with pride, Harry struggles not to laugh at how ridiculous Dudley looks.
  • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the Dursleys are having a rich builder and his wife over for dinner, in hopes of getting a big order for Uncle Vernon's drill-manufacturing company. When Uncle Vernon suggests flattering them with compliments at dinner, Dudley says, "How about 'We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Mason, and I wrote about you.'" Harry has to duck under the table so his aunt, uncle and cousin won't see him trying not to laugh.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: Prince Geordo, upon hearing Catarina is starting a farm to "commune with the earth" and enhance her earth magic, has to stifle a laugh.
• A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez has a scene where the eponymous witch is trying to find soldiers with a suitable degree of disbelief to take on a wizard skilled at crafting illusions. To do this, she tells them that a rock is not real and that it won't harm them if they don't believe it is real. It's a real rock, but she is looking for soldiers who won't flinch when they confronted with illusions. Her familiar, a demonic duck named Newt, is barely holding his laughter in check with each successive soldier and there are tears of repressed amusement streaming from his eyes.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: Combined with Laughing at Your Own Jokes, Sheldon has created a science themed mad-lib, but keeps cracking up every time he tries to read through it.
• The Brittas Empire: In "Biggles Tells a Lie", Colin tells Laura that he has an illegitimate daughter, and that he has been pretending to be a Manager so that she could be proud of him. When he admits that he didn't want to tell the rest of the staff as he feared that they might have laughed, Laura reassures him that they won't, although it doesn't stop her from struggling to keep a straight face and not laughing anyway.
• Coupling: In "Sex, Death, & Nudity", Jeff explains to his friends Steve and Patrick the concept of "the giggle loop". During a very solemn occasion, a person can create a mental feedback loop of thinking how inappropriate it would be to laugh, and then laughing at how inappropriate it would be if they had just laughed. Later, they're put to the test when Jane's aunt dies and they have to attend the wake. A giggle loop begins during the minute's silence, and all three men fidget, sweat, and hold hands to keep their laughter inside, until finally ... Jane bursts out laughing. When the rest of the room look at her, she says, "Well, you've got to laugh!"
• The guys of Impractical Jokers frequently have to restrain their laughter, especially during games where they actively try to make each other crack up and the one who laughs first/most loses.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show: In the episode "Chuckles Bites The Dust", the circus performer Chuckles the Clown is killed by a rogue elephant while dressed in a peanut costume. When the other people in the newsroom make morbid jokes about the circumstances of Chuckles' death, Mary scolds them for making light of a tragedy. However, during Chuckles' funeral, the minister describes the various characters Chuckles had portrayed and despite her best efforts to contain herself Mary can't help but burst into a fit of giggles, much to her mortification. The minister forgives her, saying that Chuckles preferred laughter to crying.
• M*A*S*H:
  • "Quo Vadis Captain Chandler", Col. Flagg, in one of his typical paranoid rants, attacks Dr. Sidney Freedman in front of the MASHers, telling him that his "ploy" of not signing his loyalty oath to "get out of the service" (Flagg's interpretation of events, not based in fact) was very dumb, but that Sidney had met his match in Flagg. B.J. has to stifle his laughter at the Insult Backfire.
  • In another episode, Frank actually manages to land a successful dig in at Margaret. He tells Hawkeye and B.J. that there's an attractive nurse that he was considering asking out. Margaret suggests that the freckle-faced nurse "is a bit young" for Burns. Burns nonchalantly says, "I don't know. A little youth might be refreshing for a change." ^note Margaret being his go-to fling prior to her engagement that episode Hawkeye, sitting right next to Margaret, has to look away from her and cover his face so that she won't see he's about to burst out laughing at Frank's barb.
• Night Court: When Bull is reading some of his poetry out loud, Mac gets up and shoves a donut in his mouth to keep from laughing. It doesn't work for long.
• Yellowjackets : In "F Sharp" the plane crash survivors are waiting to be rescued. Just then, a contrite Laura Lee confesses that the plane crash is all her fault and God is punishing them all for her thinking (not saying) an evil word about her piano teacher during a lesson. Her teammates ask what the terrible word was, and shamefaced, she admits it was "cunt". They try not to laugh but they fail miserably. Even Laura Lee has to chuckle.
• Yes, Minister: Prime Minister Hacker is disparaging his predecessor for what he wrote about Hacker in his memoirs when they're informed his predecessor has abruptly died. Hacker's actor, Paul Eddington, then does some of the most epic face acting ever committed to videotape as he bursts out laughing before turning it completely around into a solemn, dignified nod, capped off by a simple, "Tragic."

Web Animation

• Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures: Hello Kitty stumbles into a huge mess that was caused when her friends turned off the lights to do a Surprise Party, and at first they thought she was crying at the mess, but she was actually holding back laughter after seeing the lengths they'd gone to for her.

Webcomics

• Dumbing of Age: Briefly attempted by Carla Rutten, before remembering she had no interest in hiding her amusement and began laughing uproariously in response to Lucy referring to Billie, with whom Carla and most others on her floor have a somewhat tumultuous history, having a "all-encompassing popularity".

Western Animation

• Beavis and Butt-Head: In "No Laughing", Beavis and Butt-Head were banned from laughing in school for a week. During Sex Ed, the teacher said some topics related to the subject and the boys hold in their laughter while he was talking.
• Clarence: In "Classroom", Sumo spends most of the episode trying not to laugh at Clarence's shenanigans. At the end, he finally cracks up when Brady pees his pants in front of everyone.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "World Wide Wabbit", Mac and Bloo secretly record Mr. Herriman reciting an adorably cute poem to Madame Foster. When Frankie and the other friends watch it, they can't help but snicker whenever they hear Herriman speak, especially since they're imagining "-ity" being added to most of his words.
• Justice League Action:
  • In "Phased and Confused", Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have been sent into the Phantom Zone by Zod. It happens to be Lazy Bum Booster Gold's turn to monitor the Watchtower, but nothing's going on that he knows of (or cares about), so he explores the dressing room, snooping into members' lockers. At Batman's locker, Booster dons the cowl and cape and mimics Batman's "I'm Batman." Batman grouses, "I do not sound like that," Superman smirks, and Wonder Woman stifles a giggle.
  • Superman has to fight to hold in laughter after inhaling enough laughing gas to affect a city, then delivering it to Mongul's warship.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998) : In "The Mane Event", after Blossom gets a terrible haircut, Bubbles and Buttercup bite their lips to keep from laughing at her. Once Blossom leaves, they burst out laughing.
• Robot Chicken: A sketch involves a man at a college party (which also parodies The Hurt Locker) trying to flirt with a woman. He makes fun of her major when she tells him her dead father had the same major. After asking how he died, she told him he committed suicide because he couldn't find a job, resulting in him trying and ultimately failing to hold in a snicker.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "New Student Starfish", after Patrick tries to introduce himself to Mrs. Puff's class and blurts out "Twenty-four", he and SpongeBob can't help but think of how funny it was and makes stifled laughs. When they think of something funnier than "twenty-four" ("Twenty-five!"), they can barely contain themselves until Mrs. Puff comes to scold them for interrupting her lesson.
  Mrs. Puff: Young man, this is your first day, so I'm letting you off with a warning. As for you, SpongeBob, I expect more from a Good Noodle. Pay attention!
  SpongeBob: Yes, Mrs. Puff. Sorry, Mrs. Puff.
• Squirrel Boy: One episode has Andy struggling to find a place where he can laugh without interrupting his dad's speech at a scout meeting.
• Wander over Yonder: In "The Party Poopers", Sylvia takes Wander to see the High Gnees and informs him that he must never laugh in their presence, or he'll be kicked out. This turns out to be difficult for Wander, as there are loads of references to butts and poop, and Sylvia has to hold Wander out a window so he can privately let out his giggles twice. Ironically, it's Sylvia who ends up losing her composure around the High Gnees.

Real Life

• During the filming of Caddyshack, Rodney Dangerfield was considering quitting and letting someone else have the role of Al Czervik as he felt he wasn't doing a good enough job. When asked why he thought that way, Rodney explained that he was used to people laughing at his jokes as a stand up comedian. He also noticed that people would act very stiff and strange during his scenes and it made him uncomfortable. His co-star Chevy Chase explained while telling the story that Rodney's performance was so funny that the rest of the cast and crew were trying not to laugh and thus ruin the shot.
• Truth in Television; as many a parent could attest, children, not knowing social norms and cues right off the bat, will say or do something that is equally amusing and mortifying, which will cause the parents to try and stifled laughter, lest they accidentally cause the child to think such behavior is permissable and appropriate.