Trying really, really hard not to laugh

[YouNeverKnow175]

The theme of this thread is tickling experiences in which you - or another - had to try INCREDIBLY hard not to laugh. It may have been an embarrassing public situation, or perhaps a scenario like a doctor's visit, massage, or pedicure when you felt shy about laughing. Or maybe an all-out tickling session during which you just didn't want to break.

Share the tale...what ended up happening? Did you manage to hold it in? Or did you eventually lose it?

I'll share one that I witnessed from a former gf several years back (which you may have seen in the stories section before):

I was watching my extremely ticklish girlfriend, who was very shy about laughing and revealing her ticklishness, Ella, get a pedicure. She was around 21 at the time. The most ticklish part was the "file"/scraper that the woman used to scrub down Ella's feet. I could see her tense up during this part - the look on her face incredible - just REALLY on edge. Her jaw was clenched, she had a really uneasy look in her eyes, and her hands were folded in her lap, sort of gripping one another. She pulled her foot away slightly once on each foot. The first time, the woman asked, "Does it tickle?" and Ella replied, uncomfortably, "a little...". The second time, the woman looked up at her to make sure she was okay and sort of laughed a bit and Ella sort of forced a smile very uneasily. She rubbed the file all over her foot with a fervor - it was really amazing - but Ella was doing an incredible job of keeping her composure, externally at least.

It wasn't until "storytime" afterwards that I found out that it "tickled soooo, soooo much" and that she was fighting so hard not to laugh or pull away that she started to even feel a little bit sick. Here's an interesting example of how people can react differently to the same level of tickling depending on the social setting: I asked Ella what she would have done if I had been doing the same thing, and she said she would have, without question, been in hysterics and gotten to the point of using our SAFEWORD. That's how unbelievably ticklish that part was. She said the worst part was right in the center of her sole, where her foot is the most soft.

The final part that tickled her was the massage at the end. The woman used a lotion and rubbed it all over Ella's feet and legs and massaged them. Then she did something amazing - which I didn't realize exactly what it was at the time. She stood up and placed her thumbs on the tops of Ella's feet. She then proceeded to SCRAPE THE NAILS OF ALL HER OTHER FINGERS UP DOWN THE BOTTOMS of Ella's feet. She did this, up and down, for 5-10 seconds! When Ella told me about this part I could barely even handle it. During the actual pedicure, I saw her flinch and look uneasy again during this part, but I had no idea. "How could you handle that?" I asked. "I couldn't! I was freaking out," she said.

Ella said it was probably the most ticklish pedicure she's ever gotten.

 

[Mane'o]

At the movies my wife often slips off her footwear and puts her legs over mine so her bare, ticklish feet are within easy reach of my hands. I stroke her calves, ankles and feet and mix in tickling with my fingertips on her arches and under her toes. When she squirms and begins to move her legs I lightly rest my other hand on her ankles to keep her ticklish feet in place. I try to tickle until I think she is just on the edge of losing it. When it really gets too ticklish for her she leans forward and grabs my arm to pull me away so she can move her feet out of tickle range. Of course I like to tickle her like this during the quiet scenes in the movie when laughter would be an inappropriate response. Keep in mind she knows very well what i will do and she initiates it by slipping her shoes or sandals off and placing her feet in the tickle zone.

Sometimes she will do the same thing in a restaurant. She slips her sandal off (we live in Hawaii so she most often is wearing flip flops or sandals) and she sneaks her bare foot up my leg and along the inside of my thigh. If i catch her foot, which i usually do, I grasp her ankle firmly and tickle her sole. Of course the best time to do this is when the waiter or waitress comes to take the order and she has to try to maintain her composure.

Finally when we are checking out at the store I may stand right behind her and whisper in her ear that I am going to tickle her. While she is trying to pay attention to the cashier I wiggle my fingers along her ribcage or into her underarms and tickle her. She struggles in ticklish silence to maintain her composure and not curl into a ball or burst out in giggles and laughter. Again I usually take her to the edge of what I think she can handle and then back off just long enough to give her a little break before i begin to tickle her again.

Sometimes in these public tickles others see what is going on but often the only way strangers might know she is being tickled is if she giggles or laughs or makes large twists and turns to escape. It often wears her out to struggle to maintain her composure in those ticklish situations.
I'm undecided whether i enjoy her ticklish predicament more knowing others are aware she is being tickled or her brave attempts to hide her ticklishness.

 

[Wade]

Once I was at home talking on the phone with my boss when my girlfriend at the time plopped down on my legs and menaced me with the idea that she was going to tickle my feet: waggling her fingers in the air, planting her index finger deliberately and cruelly on different spots on my sole. I beseeched her with my eyes not to do it.

And then she started scampering her fingers all over my feet. I thought I was going to die. I was frantic. Turns out that when you're suppressing the urge to laugh while someone tickles you, all that energy goes into your physical reactions, so my body was thrashing around like crazy -- the whole spectacle, of course, just encouraged Laura to keep tickling. I wasn't able to keep it in forever; eventually the laughter did come out, which was an embarrassing and awkward moment with my boss.

 

[anonymiss86]

Once I was at home talking on the phone with my boss when my girlfriend at the time plopped down on my legs and menaced me with the idea that she was going to tickle my feet: waggling her fingers in the air, planting her index finger deliberately and cruelly on different spots on my sole. I beseeched her with my eyes not to do it.

And then she started scampering her fingers all over my feet. I thought I was going to die. I was frantic. Turns out that when you're suppressing the urge to laugh while someone tickles you, all that energy goes into your physical reactions, so my body was thrashing around like crazy -- the whole spectacle, of course, just encouraged Laura to keep tickling. I wasn't able to keep it in forever; eventually the laughter did come out, which was an embarrassing and awkward moment with my boss.

That's so awesome! Very hot!
Bravo to your girlfriend!!
Totally something I would do and have done. 🙂

 

[Wade]

That's so awesome! Very hot!
Bravo to your girlfriend!!
Totally something I would do and have done. 🙂

Then clearly you're every bit as evil as my girlfriend was. She knew how much I wanted NOT to embarrass myself on that particular phone call, and of course she was well-acquainted with how desperately ticklish my feet are -- and that opportunistic combination of incompatible impulses was obviously irresistible to her. The fact that I managed at first to keep from laughing only sealed my fate, because it compelled her to see how long I could hold out -- which meant, by definition, that she was going to keep up the assault until I couldn't suppress the laughter any longer; the only way she could find out how long I could hold out was by persisting until I couldn't hold out any longer, and my control over the situation was nonexistent -- my only choices were to laugh or to try not to laugh (and eventually that second choice was no longer an option; I had no control over that either). The worst part was trying to sound like I was carrying on a sensible conversation with my boss as I writhed and clasped a hand over my mouth.

Trying to explain, afterwards, the unexpected explosion of giggles to my humorless boss was not one of the most favorite things I've ever done.

 

[playfuldude]

Ex girlfriend took me to get a pedicure for my birthday, so I figured she's paying, why not. We were soaking our feet when the pedicurist came over with the scrubbers and all that stuff. Gf knowing what a sucker I am for getting tickled told the girl "i'll give you a great tip if you make his pedicure tickle like hell". LOL It was funny. I just acted like oooohhhh i'm in trouble now.. A middle age woman was having one done as well so gf, the pedicure girl, and the middle aged woman got a huge kick out of watching me laugh and turn red. Needless to say, she got a great tip, and my ex got the hell tickled outa her later that evening. Good times..