it doesn't make a good story, you basically had to be there. But the funniest thing I ever saw in the 48 years of my life was a school mate limping sideways and falling over.
We were on a school trip to the royal show in warwickshire, must be 34 years ago now.
The lad who saw it with me and I, literally could not stand up for laughing and it was probably 15 minutes before we could stand up at all. Throughout the rest of the day we would both spontaneously burst out laughing and fall over again.
No phones, no internet, we barely had television. But john kinson limping sideways and falling over at the royal show - is indelibly engraved on my memory for all time.
The thing is, it's actually impossible to limp sideways, but somehow he managed it. And we couldn't tell anyone what we were laughing at, because every time we tried we just burst into hysterics and fell over.
I have no idea what the teacher thought, probably that we were on drugs.
I can remeber how much my ribs hurt after a few hours, but we just couldn't stop laughing every time we thought of it.
The fact that it effected both of us identically, tells me that It was a genuinely hilarious event and not just a trick of my own imagination.
Didn't really recover untill the next day and it kept me laughing for a good week at random points of the day.
And every time stephen and I saw each other for the next few weeks, we'd both start laughing again.
***
The Funniest book I've ever read is terry pratchetts Guards, Guards.
I must have read it at least a dozen times over the years and every time parts of it always make me laugh out loud.
If you only ever read one terry pratchett book in your life, read: Guards, Guards !
If you only ever read one terry pratchett book in your life - that's a lot of wasted life where you could have been reading the others
But Guards Guards ! is the best of a great bunch.