TIFU by laughing out loud during a lecture with 240 undergraduates when the professor said ‘PP’. Everyone else was silent.

For context, I had two hours of sleep, had to travel an hour to campus and had no access to caffeine. I was officially brain dead and was barely functioning.

It was the very first lecture with this professor. She said, in a very professional manner, that “The citation for public prosecutor is PP”.

It was as if her words triggered a knee jerk response. Having the humor of a 14 year old boy and in the midst of fighting to stay awake, I burst out laughing. It was an ugly laugh. It was barely a laugh; rather, a cacophony of noises I’ve never knew a human was able to produce, pouring out of my mouth. A monkey hollering at the sight of its buddy challenging the alpha male. A starving parrot screeching for food. A husky whining like the dramatic queen she is.

My sentiment and seemingly lackluster sense of humour, was however, not shared amongst my peers. No one appreciated the concert symphony I had produced. Everyone stood silent, All eyes shifted their focus to me. The professor even stopped speaking, mid sentence, offended to the blatant disrespect shown.

At this moment, any reasonable person would immediately cease their laughter, attempting to hide themselves from perception, both in shame and guilt this humiliation. Instead, my two brain cells kept the professors words echoing in my mind. “PP”, they whispered, “PP”. It felt like there was a devious spirit dragging me towards a route of a completely destroyed reputation, and I was too weak to defend myself. I gave in. Chortles, followed by desperate gasps for air. The floodgates had opened, tears leaked out of my eye ducts.“PP”, the voices now screamed. I desperately attempted to conceal my laughter with my measly hands. “PP”. My lower abdomen started to hurt from the excessive yet unreasonable laughter. I was defeated.

PP. pronunciation, “peepee”. Formally understood as a lewd, immature description of the male genitalia or otherwise understood as the acronym of public prosecutor is now the sole reason of my demise.

TLDR; Prof said “PP” and I laughed out loud. I was the only one laughing