😂 Church Laughter

Why We Crack Up During Inappropriate Moments — Plus, Inside the Trade Deal and Anduril's CEO Looks Exactly Like Theo Von and I Can't Unsee It

Katie Perry
June 12, 2025

Welcome to Tuesday Thursday Saturday! I share a snapshot of trending stories across business, tech, and culture three times a week. Subscribe and tell me what you want to hear about next! - KP

The Big Story: Why We Laugh During Funerals

There’s this thing called church laughter. It’s mostly a Catholic phenomenon (I think? Maybe not!). It happens in those moments when you're in a super solemn place like a funeral, a wake, or even just a regular old Mass, and suddenly you feel it creeping up.

Something is f***ing hilarious.

You try to stifle it, of course, but the more inappropriate it is, the harder it hits. You glance to your right, and some guy in a white and gold robe is swinging incense around. You glance to your left, and a sibling is also trying to keep it together. Now everyone around you is falling apart. Meanwhile, the folks two rows up are chanting weird things in Latin, and by the way, the chants change every five years, so nobody is in sync.

That’s church laughter. And it turns out, there’s an entire philosophy behind it.

Sometimes when I have trouble falling asleep at night, I’ll throw on some Alan Watts lectures. For those unfamiliar, Watts was a British philosopher and writer who explained complex ideas from Eastern religions like Buddhism and Taoism in simple, relatable ways for Western audiences. His voice is mesmerizing.

With his crisp Kentish accent, Watts’ crackly old lectures sound like dreamy guided meditations. They would put me to sleep faster if they weren’t so damn interesting!

I enjoy the way Watts puts words and ideas together, and I’m frankly jealous of his ability to do so. One theme he comes back to often is the relationship between anxiety and laughter. He argues that they are necessarily two sides of the same coin!

And if you think about it, it checks out.

Watts believed that anxiety is what happens when we try to control the uncontrollable. Life, death, time, other people’s feelings, (some aspects of) our careers — it’s really all just chaos dressed up in calendars and VC-funded project management trackers. But face it, we’re all floating in mystery. On a glorified rock. In the middle of a giant universe … which seemingly has no end.

A logarithmic map of the entire observable universe, via Visual Capitalist

And the more we try to control our surroundings, the more our nervous systems freak out. That’s anxiety. But laughter? Laughter is what happens when we stop resisting. It’s that spontaneous exhale that says: “Well, isn’t this all kind of ridiculous?” It's our body’s way of giving up; not in defeat, but in relief. The tension breaks, and suddenly, instead of spiraling, we’re smiling.

Church laughter is a perfect example. It hits us in spaces that feel heavy, even overwhelming. And in that environment, where we’re trying so hard to behave, something in us just snaps. Because maybe the seriousness of life, if held too tightly, becomes absurd. And when that happens, we don’t cry. We laugh.

Watts refers to this as the “cosmic joke.” Not because life is meaningless, but because it’s too big, too mysterious, too unpredictable to ever make complete sense. When we pretend we’ve got it all figured out, the universe is quick to remind us that we don’t.

“Life as it is should be enough of a reason to laugh. It is so absurd, it is so ridiculous. It is so beautiful, it is so wonderful. It is all sorts of things together. It is a great cosmic joke.”

Alan Watts

People tell me that I am funny. I think it’s mostly self-deprecation, but part of it is that I do tend to see the absurdity of life situations that others do not. A lot of the things we get worked up about are truly hilarious. A grown-up having a meltdown in a public Slack channel. Falling up the subway steps. Being wronged by someone who all your friends refer to by some obscure nickname, like “Dead Eyes,” “Thigh Tat,” “Bad Tipper,” or something far more derogatory that could never escape the confines of the group chat.

The other night, I got up to get a bottle of water and ran directly into my stationary bike. It is the only Peloton injury I’ve ever sustained. I was in so much pain that the only thing to do was fall to the floor. And laugh.

It’s all a coping mechanism, and if laughing helps placate my messy journey through the world, then I am more than happy to share it with others. And really, there is no better feeling in the world than making someone else laugh.

While we’re on the topic, I think laughing at work is important! We spend all day in weird ergonomic chairs, on Zooms, in actual phone booths placed INDOORS, and all the while we’re changing cells in spreadsheets, volleying digital messages back and forth, and talking to LLMs. Imagine being at work 8+ hours a day and NOT laughing.

I’m passionate about what I do and take pride in my work. I’m always striving to get smarter, be better, and give my best effort. But still, with all of that, none of this is that serious, is it? (Ignore that last part if you happen to be a brain surgeon, a teacher, a social worker, etc.)

Watts would argue that this kind of laughter is sacred. Not because it makes light of seriousness, but because it acknowledges it.

Laughter doesn’t fix anything so much as it makes it possible to keep going. To sit with the absurdity without letting it crush you. And if the universe really is one big, cosmic joke? I’d rather be in on it.

Daily Rip Live: Folks, We Got a Trade Deal, NVDA CEO’s Comments Send Quantum Stocks Ripping, and JD Vance is Upset (Again)

Watch us every weekday morning (M-Th) at 9 AM ET on X, YouTube, or in the Stocktwits app!

Every weekday, my co-host Shay Boloor and I cover the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live.

We covered a ton of ground on Wednesday’s show — here’s the breakdown:

2:33 | XSY.fi stopped by to discuss decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, and Web3. These topics are a bit crypto-insider-y for me, but I tried my best to keep up!

19:35 | The China trade is deal locked in (according to us!), the latest inflation numbers weren’t horrific, and overall, things were pretty chill … except now JD Vance is also mad at Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the streets are saying that current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — who allegedly shoved Elon Musk back in April — could be next in line, but also he might not want the job, so who knows. Another day in DC!

21:37 | Rare earth minerals (necessary for powering our AI future!) are a big part of the trade deal, so we explored the potential impact on North America-based MP Minerals. $MP ( ▲ 2.4% )

23:45 | Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that quantum computing is “within reach” of solving real-world problems. This is a big deal because he has previously been less optimistic about the timelines for quantum’s commercial viability. $NVDA ( ▼ 0.39% )

30:27 | We talked about Jensen being a “strategic chameleon,” who’s not afraid to evolve his opinion based on new facts and information. (Imagine that!)

32:35 | Tesla robotaxis have arrived in Austin with a broader roll-out expected in the coming days. It’s been a rollercoaster couple of weeks for Tesla shareholders, between the black eye, public falling out, Epstein allegations, Epstein allegations walk-back, and (now) public reconciliation. We’re just glad those two kids were able to talk things out! 🥰

40:30 | Alphabet (Google’s parent company) needs a narrative shift, and reclaiming 'search' in the AI era might just be it. What are “zero-click” searches, and why should you care? $GOOG ( ▼ 0.4% )

49:30 | McDonald's got a downgrade, in part due to the increased usage of GLP-1s. We talk about people eating healthier, eating less often, and what the impact might be on consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast-casual. $MCD ( ▼ 1.34% )

53:10 | Then, we pivoted to stress in the white-collar job market, especially among executives. When things are uncertain, people go into “don’t get fired mode.” But it’s exactly this moment in time that requires bold leadership. What’s a CEO to do?!

56:07 | I recently found out about Palmer Luckey, the CEO of defense startup Anduril, and also the Theo Von of Drones? Shay’s deep in this “new age of defense” stuff, so I asked him how investors should be thinking about Anduril relative to software/data-based Palantir. $PLTR ( ▼ 2.27% )

We’re live for the last time this week TODAY at 9 AM ET!

Now Here’s a Chart

The number of U.S. farms has declined from a peak of 6.8 million in 1935 to 1.88 million in 2024, driven by rising agricultural productivity and more nonfarm job opportunities. Farmland acreage and average farm size have remained relatively stable in recent decades, with 876 million acres and an average of 466 acres per farm in 2024.

Reading List

🎧 Now playing: “God Only Knows” - The Beach Boys. RIP Brian Wilson! 💔

Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

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Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.