0654 – Dead Good Advice On Studio Corpsing

2022.10.16 – 0654 – Dead Good Advice On Studio Corpsing

Corpsing (that is, laughing uncontrollably)

‘There’s one hazard that no amount of preparation can avoid: the collapse into inappropriate laughter. The Today programme website still treasures the moment when Charlotte Green kept a cool head while reading a news item about a Mr Twatt. And she would have sailed through it too, if it wasn’t for the next story — about a plucky sperm whale’[1]

The smallest reference to something odd may start you laughing, or it may just be because you’re in ‘one of those moods’. Obviously, there’s room for humour on air, and many listeners can forgive the occasional mistake. That’s as long as it is not too often and they can understand what’s happened. Otherwise, they’ll be more bemused than amused and feel excluded.

If you get a fit of the giggles, look away from their cause, think sad thoughts (“I could lose my job because of this”) and dig your fingernails into your arm to give your mind something else to concentrate on.

It’s often best not to try to contain the laughter, but instead go to another pre-recorded item (preferably a song) and literally laugh-off the moment. Have a good guffaw, walk into another room, have a drink of water and try to re-establish yourself in time for the next link.

There are few threats greater to a newsreader’s credibility than that of corpsing on air. It means to dry up, grind to a halt or, worse, burst out laughing.

[1] Roland White, The Sunday Times, 30 October 2005. Here that clip here: http://tinyurl.com/mw5hyu and another similar one here: http://tinyurl.com/cst9sv

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