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[nogutsnoapplepie]

Can anyone shed light on what these pricks are smiling about?

[cdnvic]

Can anyone shed light on what these pricks are smiling about?

Looks like a decapitation. Some people are just sick farkers.

cv

[konangrit]

Can anyone shed light on what these pricks are smiling about?

They're Thai, they can't help it.

Land of Smiles.

From the little I can make out it would appear that he was speeding. At least his face has been pixelated I guess.

[marginline]

I've been reliably informed that this was a road traffic accident on Suk Suwat Road where the individual (duly pixelated) was riding, dare I say racing his motorcycle with other members of a motorbike gang. Apparently he crashed into a pole alongside the road and in the process was decapitated.

[dugdig]

Yeah, they are probably mostly smiling because their picture is being taken, I do agree. Also, if you work with this stuff regularly it gets routine and boring and a sense of humor creaps in. I worked in the gross anatomy room and morgue at a major teaching hospital and if I told you some of our jokes you'd think I was sick/er. Even the doctors...especially doctors.

[Gazza]

I've ridden passed many accident scenes and quite often will see people standing around smiling and sometimes even laughing. It's one of the many reasons why I don't stop to check out what happened. It just makes me want to punch some face.

I remember my old Thai-Chinese female boss recounting how she saw someone falling to their death from a high floor of Gaysorn Plaza(or bldg next door?) when there was a fire there about ten years ago. She had a big grin on her face as though she considered herself lucky to have witnessed it.

Not all Thais are like this though, and it baffles me why for some, horrific casualties are a source of enjoyment.

[autonomous_unit]

...

Not all Thais are like this though, and it baffles me why for some, horrific casualties are a source of enjoyment.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, a smile doesn't always mean enjoyment. Just like dogs and chimpanzees, I think sometimes people have a smile reaction when in very stressful or frightening social environments. It's a survival mechanism to defuse the situation with your peers.

There is also disbelief in some circumstances; I remember smiling briefly and laughing when first told that my brother had died. It took a few seconds for the concept to sink in and cloud me over.

But that one guy on the left really seems engrossed and happy staring at the head, rather than smiling meekly at the camera.

[Simbo]

Why try to justify the sick behaviour of those in the photo. They are actually posing and smiling for the camera. Is this the real, amazing Thailand people rave about?

[autonomous_unit]

Why try to justify the sick behaviour of those in the photo. They are actually posing and smiling for the camera. Is this the real, amazing Thailand people rave about? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not trying to justify the picture... I cannot justify why the picture was taken or published either. I don't understand half the photos and reenactments and pointing parades that go on here, but that is a different topic entirely.

I was responding to the other post about people smiling at seemingly inappropriate times, like when relating a story about someone's horrific death. I know people's emotions cannot always be taken at "face value"; that's all I was trying to say.

[dugdig]

Why try to justify the sick behaviour of those in the photo. They are actually posing and smiling for the camera. Is this the real, amazing Thailand people rave about? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A photo does not show 'behaviour'. Any behaviour you are seeing is happening inside your own head. And, yes, this is the 'amaxing Thailand people rave about'. Thai people are all heartless mindless ghouls. When they think noone is looking they get out their book of pictures of eviscerated people and rub their hands together and laugh maniacaly. Really, they do....and ....oh forget it ...I'm only joking haha

[dugdig]

I was responding to the other post about people smiling at seemingly inappropriate times, like when relating a story about someone's horrific death. I know people's emotions cannot always be taken at "face value"; that's all I was trying to say.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I usually consider this question to be rhetorical but I'm getting the feeling that you really don't know why so I'll try to answer.

In Thai culture, if you are in public then the most important thing is for uncomfortable situations to be avoided. It is sometimes/often/usually better to lie than to cause embarrassment or confusion...by Thai standards. Westerners will meet people in public and mention a problem and dthen other people will start to agree and amplify the first comment....I think this is called whingeing? This is totally alien to the Thai sense of appropriate social behavior. This is not a 100% hard fast rule...for instance when with family or close friends you can whinge more or if thetopic is not serious you can whinge and say youare joking...etc.....but..in my experience...the more serious the topic the more important it becomes to not make a comment that can embarrase or confuse others. If you work in a hospital and you've got a bodyless head and a reporter comes to take a picture....the more repugnant this seems to you the more likely you are to smile.....and there are a million kinds of smiles in Thailand....Thai peole can read them very well but most westerners don't have a clue.

[cdnvic]

Yeah, they are probably mostly smiling because their picture is being taken, I do agree.  Also, if you work with this stuff regularly it gets routine and boring and a sense of humor creaps in.  I worked in the gross anatomy room and morgue at a major teaching hospital and if I told you some of our jokes you'd think I was sick/er.  Even the doctors...especially doctors.

I used to be the nightshift guy at a medium-sized newspaper a few years back and photographed many accidents, fires, drownings, etc. Neither myself, or any of the myriad of other photogs, reporters and camera ops that I could remember ever got a laugh out of a body. You get used to it, yes. You may even smile during a conversation with a co-worker. But pose smiling around a victim? Anyone sick enough to do that would be persona non-grata at any further accident or crime scenes.

cv

[dugdig]

But pose smiling around a victim? Anyone sick enough to do that would be persona non-grata at any further accident or crime scenes.

cv

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In the USA they want to recruit people like this for the military...especially if their good with a camera!!!!

[nogutsnoapplepie]

[Thetyim]

Thanks Duddig I now have a new word in my vocabulary.

Only a morgue worker would use a word like that.

By the way I had eviscerated fish for dinner today.

[dugdig]

Thanks Duddig I now have a new word in my vocabulary.

Only a morgue worker would use a word like that.

By the way I had eviscerated fish for dinner today.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually I learned the word 'eviscerate' when I was studying to be an emergency medical technician.

Do you think that morgue workers are bad people? or am I reading something into this that is not there?

[Backpack_thailand]

Smiling like Cheshire cats at a decapitation, horror etc...

Have you ever tried to get a Thai to smile infront of a tourist attraction...??

I'll NEVER figure these Thais out!

[ProfessorFart]

What you are looking at is a different attitude to death coupled with a passion for scandal and sensation.

Nothing to get offended by here as far as I can see. Watch the iTV news every night for a real claret fest.

[toastwars]

Can anyone shed light on what these pricks are smiling about?

Laughing his head off??

[konangrit]

Can anyone shed light on what these pricks are smiling about?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Laughing his head off??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice one

[corkscrew]

Yeah, they are probably mostly smiling because their picture is being taken, I do agree.  Also, if you work with this stuff regularly it gets routine and boring and a sense of humor creaps in.  I worked in the gross anatomy room and morgue at a major teaching hospital and if I told you some of our jokes you'd think I was sick/er.  Even the doctors...especially doctors.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

At university one of my mates was a med student. For year he had an Anatomy lab and once he left a finger of one of his stiffs in an ash tray at a bar.

[nogutsnoapplepie]

Can anyone shed light on what these pricks are smiling about?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Laughing his head off??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice one

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>