How many laughs are in Lynch's EraserHead?

Tonight i went to see EraserHead in a small theater here, the last of the three films I've seen since David Lynch passed - all in the same theater. But i left about a third of the way through the film. Eraserhead has a lot of ambient noise and strange sounds but all in all it gives off a stark quiet.

At the beginning of the film i suppose i caught a bit of Phonophobia that bothered me from the general noises of the theater (candy wrappers, off conversations, coughing, ect...), and then honestly the laughter from half of the theater seemingly directed at some of lynch's off colored weirdness really bothered me, so i left.

The other two films i went to see were Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. There are plenty of moments of strange comedy in both, but Mulholland Drive is a bit more absurd in some areas and quiet comical. Watching EraserHead i feel like there may be subtle hints of comedy but nothing over the top and nothing that caused me to laugh on previous viewing.


Are there moments that are funny that I'm just too stuck up for?
How would you feel about an experience like this in a theater?


Btw this is only the second film I've ever walked out on - I don't want to talk about the other one.

I looked at the thread, saw "zero" replies and that about says it. I thought that it was kind of interesting, but as for laughs....I didn't get any. I didn't see it in a theater, so I didn't have to walk out. I wanted to be able to pad my cinephile resume by saying It'd seen it, but it didn't make much of an impression on me.

I did not laugh a single time, but Lynch movies are not my jam so no surprise there.

__________________

Now I'm dying to find out what the other film you walked out on was.

Matrix resurrection. Stayed in there way too long, pretty sure ive suffered some sort of nerve damage from it.

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

Yeah this is one of the scenes that recieved some roars. In the overall scheme of the film though, it seems more absurdly weird than outright comedy.

I also wouldn't describe the scene as comedy, but I don't think the film is meant to be comedy as a whole. Which isn't to say one can't respond to the film that way, but I'd say it operates more as a surreal, borderline-horror film where the most bizarre scenes either do or likely occur in Henry's head. It looks like you didn't respond to the film well (part of it might've been due to the unruly crowd you saw the film with), but I do hope you'll watch it from start to finish someday. I think it's a masterpiece (I recently bumped a lengthy analysis I wrote on the film in the Movie Reviews tab).

Eraserhead is very funny, because Lynch is a director that understands how closely related fear and laughter are.

Upon my first viewing of the film, I said to myself, "Well, I never need to see that again."

Yet I've watched it since (mostly out of a sense of the macabre).

Oh no, I've seen it plenty of times before, that's part of the reason the laughs bothered me so much. I really respect the film and i thought it was a bit rude.

The scene with the little chickens cracks me up, and when the wife takes a little too long to get something from under the bed, there's 2 laughs right there!!

__________________
No time left for anything else

The audience gives a collective response. For better or worse, when you go see a movie with a crowd, you're signing on to join with that collective.

I remember a theater audience breaking out in a standing ovation for the Gregory Hines film Tap (1989) as the credits rolled. This is something that doesn't happen to often (unless you're at Cannes) and the film was quickly forgotten. In that moment, however, we cheered. Perhaps the applause was unearned, but in that moment it was tops.