Day 47

'Flachauwinkl' Pen on Paper

The Subject matter of today's drawing was simply that I was half way up a mountain surrounding by outstanding natural beauty and figured this was as good a thing to draw as any. Today's thoughts then aren't directly as a result of the image but instead in reference to something that was being talked about whilst is was in the midst of drawing.  There was a group of 8 of us sitting at the bottom of one of the slopes having a drink just watching the swarms of people making their way down the mountain some with great bravado, others with mild caution and others hurtling face downwards with a mouthful of snow... much to our amusement. People falling just seems to be one of those things that is consistently funny and gets even funnier when it's someone you actually know.

As soon as you see someone fall there is always that initial few moments where your heart is in your mouth, as you wonder if they are in fact seriously hurt. The feeling though is an extremely fleeting one, as soon as they do an Evil Knievel and give the thumbs up to let you know that they are fine, you then have the go ahead to launch into hysterics. Sometimes If you are the one that falls one of the first things you may do is quickly look around to see if your inability to stay upright was noticed by any one else, in my experience it almost always is... as for whatever reason it always appears to happen at the exact moment that someone catches you in their line of sight, allowing them to give you full blow-by-blow account of your misfortune. It then occurs to me that there are normally two types of people involved in a fall the participant and the spectator, no matter which viewpoint you fall under a fall can be broken down into the following stages:

1. The Instigator - A push, a trip or a slip which if you are the participant you will exaggerate to highlight how your complete loss of coordination, balance and grace was not in any way,shape or form your fault. If your the spectator you may well be directly involved or at fault for the fall if not you will be able to disrepute the participants obvious fakery. 

2. Loss of Balance - For the participant Gravity is now your worst enemy, for the spectator it has become your favourite relative.

3. The Moment of Realisation - For the participant this is the point that you know that there is no way back you are going down and unfortunately it is not to Funky Town... also this results in a hilarious expression of panic sweeping over your face. For the Spectator this is the point when you catch the hilarious look of panic on the persons face that you will then relay to friends and to the participant when retelling the story multiple times later.   

4. The Flail - This is the point for the participant that even though they know that resistance is futile they still wave around wildly trying to regain some element of composure and  minimise the damage. For the spectator this furthers the hilarity of the situation and allows further ways to describe just how incredibly entertaining the whole escapade was.

5. The Impact - For both the participant and the spectator it is at this point that there is a level of uncertainty as to the seriousness of the fall, as such it is not until the final stage has occurred that it will be deemed whether or not it is a laughing matter.

6. The Aftermath - Once the all clear has been given it's at this point that a play-by-play account of the fall and it's many stages will be given by all those involved, to be retold repeatedly, over and over until all time has come to an end.

I can't really choose a specific reason as to why seeing someone fall is funny maybe it is the farcical nature, the drama and the absurdity of the series of events that lead up to the fall, possibly it's the stages involved in the fall itself, maybe it's even the process of sharing in the post fall analysis peicing it all back together... On the other hand perhaps it is just a case that small part of us has a sadistic side that finds humour in other people's agony and embarrassment.