Happenings audiences reacted to emotional work with nervous or inappropriate laughter.

Evidence

Dine’s distress was such that Al Hansen was moved to tears. Outside in the lobby, he found Dick Higgins drying his eyes, which were wet from laughter. According to Dine, “Kaprow once said, ‘You’re the one who does the funny Happenings.’ He likes classification … But they were not funny. Car Crash was not laughed at; the spectators tittered like they do at nudes in museums—kids get embarrassed and laugh.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 181

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Laughter at genitals masks shame over their involuntary passivity.