In the quiet town of Kimberley, New York, residents typically spend their evenings engaging in exciting activities like staring out the window, counting blades of grass, or attempting to fit mismatched puzzle pieces together. But on one fateful night last week, the citizens of Kimberley were exposed to a controversial new form of entertainment: a so-called "gloom-edy" escape room. On the exterior, the escape room titled "Tears and Laughter" appeared to be an innocuous addition to the town's repertoire of fun, nestled between the spider-infested roller rink and the taxidermy museum that mysteriously has an exhibit dedicated to squirrels in lingerie. Little did they know, "Tears and Laughter" would radically change the way they experienced misery and uncontrollable sobbing for an entry fee of $25 per person. Inside the dimly lit room, participants would gather to solve a series of emotionally draining riddles and puzzles, each more depressing than the last. They started with easy tasks, like listening to a loop of the "Titanic" theme song while peeling onions and recounting their failed romantic pasts. But just as the tears began to fade, the escape room threw wicked curveballs, abruptly switching to hilarious moments of grown men in tutus dancing to polka music, sending the participants into fits of laughter and questioning their own sanity. "To be honest, I didn't know what to expect when I heard a gloom-edy escape room was coming to Kimberley," said Mary Shuttlesworth, a local librarian who spends her evenings dusting off encyclopedias and rewatching reruns of hit TV show M*A*S*H. "But after experiencing it, I can confirm that it was the most exciting 60 minutes of my life, even though I still have no idea how to feel about it." Others, however, were not amused. Steve Lartson, the mayor of Kimberley, who came to power after solving a word jumble that revealed the location of the town's missing watermelon, decided to attend the escape room with his twin grandchildren. Stunned after leaving the emotionally rollercoaster experience, he remarked, "This must be what being in a washing machine feels like." As the debate rages over whether Tears and Laughter is appropriate entertainment for the town, one thing is for sure: at least it's not as ludicrous as the room next door, where participants have to escape a dentist's office while watching "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" on loop.