"Do you remember JJ?"

So yesterday evening, I proceed to the lounge downstairs and flip on the tube to CTV, in eager anticipation of Jeopardy. I get up just before the show stars for the washroom, and when I get back this kid is switching channels on the TV (b/c the remote is busted). I said "Hey sorry man, I was actually watching something." He scurried back to his seat and promptly apologized - said he didn't know anyone was there. BS. My face was like -_- The TV's on, there's a jacket draped on the seat, a backpack on the floor, and spicy chicken fingers on the table. The guy couldn't piece together the clues? At least he didn't help himself to anything - the chicken fingers or the jacket.

Anyhow, about 5 minutes in, two guys show up - a chubby guy and a guy who looked vaguely familiar. The chubby guy asks if we'd mind if they took over the TV at 8 as they'd wanted to watch the NHL All-Star game. I say yeah sure, no problem, I was gonna leave anyway. But when Jeopardy ended, I thought it'd been a while since I watched an All-Star game, and they tend to be entertaining hit-free scorefests, and they were ordering beer, and the seat was comfy, so I thought why not I'll stick around.

The game begins and then three more of their buddies show up. I learn later that one of the guys was from Canmore, Alberta(!), and had roomed with "Bill Gates" (a nickname Smiley and I came up with of this kid from ACTSC 371 last summer because he looked just like a Chinese version of him!) So we started joking about him.

Also by coincidence, the chubby guy's pal, Nittin, happened to be someone I'd gone to grade school with (only a year younger) and we start talking about who we knew/who we remembered/our teachers from Grade 5,6,7.

Then I ask him "Do you remember JJ?" He said he didn't know JJ - who was he? JJ was the most popular guy in junior high, and I described him as best I could - kinda retarded white guy, shaved head. Didn't sound familiar. Then he starts LAUGHING his head off for no apparent reason. Pretty soon the guy is buckled over, his face is flush. I ask him what's so funny, because I couldn't for the life of me discern the source of his amusement. Was it just the name JJ? But I still couldn't get a response out of him, because he just couldn't stop laughing. But I find the sight of him laughing so hysterically at something so trivial funny in itself, and this gets me worked up, so I start laughing too.

This attracts the attention of the CBC guy sitting across from us, who stops his conversation with the baritone-voiced stoic Aussie dude and looks our way. "Wow, we've got a couple of giggling girls here" he remarks. Then the chubby guy also starts laughing hysterically for no apparent reason - soon tears are rolling down his face. The chubby guy says he hasn't laughed so hard since he got high in first year. At that point, we're like the three hyenas.

The funniest aspect of that whole episode is that none of us quite knew what were laughing about, but we kept on laughing. Laughter is contagious.