"Don't Laugh at Me" is the title of a song written by Allen Shamblin

Allen Shamblin

Allen Shamblin is a country music songwriter who was born in Tennessee, and was brought up in Texas.After graduating from Sam Houston State University he worked in Austin as a real estate appraiser. In 1987, he quit his job and moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a song writer. He supported...

 and Steve Seskin

Steve Seskin

Steve Seskin is an American songwriter whose compositions have been recorded by Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Peter Frampton, Waylon Jennings, Brian McComas, Neal McCoy, Tim McGraw, John Michael Montgomery, Colin Raye, Tebey and Mark Wills...

. It was recorded by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Mark Wills

Mark Wills

Daryl Mark Williams is an American country music artist, best known professionally as Mark Wills. Signed to Mercury Records between 1996 and 2003, he released five studio albums for the label — Mark Wills, Wish You Were Here, Permanently, Loving Every Minute and And the Crowd Goes Wild — as well...

 and released in July 1998 as the second single from his 1998 album Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here (Mark Wills album)

Wish You Were Here is the second studio album of American country music artist Mark Wills. Released on May 5, 1998, on Mercury Nashville Records, the album produced four singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts, all of which made top 10: "I Do ", "Don't Laugh at Me", "Wish You...

. Like "I Do (Cherish You)" before it, "Don't Laugh at Me" was a number 2 hit on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

country charts. The song received Country Music Association

Country Music Association

The Country Music Association was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of only 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre...

 nominations for Country Music Association's Single, Song and Video of the Year in 1998.

Background and writing

Allen Shamblin was inspired to write the song after his daughter came home from school one day, telling him that she was being teased by other children at school because of her freckles. The song is a ballad in which various characters, such as children who have been teased or a homeless man begging on a street corner, all of whom ask for acceptance from others.

Wills has received letters from teachers and students who have said that they can identify with the song's story. According to him, "everyone can relate to [the song]…Everyone at some point in their life has been picked on, made fun of or put down." He told Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine that the song is "one of the strongest songs I've ever recorded in terms of dealing with life in general."

Chart performance

"Don't Laugh at Me" debuted at number 69 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of July 18, 1998.

Chart (1998)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	73
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	2

Peter, Paul and Mary version

Peter Yarrow

Peter Yarrow

Peter Yarrow is an American singer who found fame with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote one of the group's most famous songs, "Puff, the Magic Dragon"...

 attended a performance by co-writer Seskin at the Kerrville Folk Festival

Kerrville Folk Festival

The Kerrville Folk Festival is a music festival held for 18 consecutive days in the late spring/early summer at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas. The event has run on a yearly basis since 1972. In November 2008, the Kerrville Folk Festival and Kerrville Wine & Music Festival were acquired...

, which led to his recording the song with Peter, Paul and Mary

Peter, Paul and Mary

Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...

. Their version appeared as the sole new recording on their compilation album Songs of Conscience and Concern

Songs of Conscience and Concern

Songs of Conscience and Concern: A Retrospective Collection is a 1999 compilation album by folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. It was the group's second compilation, following 1970's Ten Years Together: The Best of Peter, Paul & Mary. Drawn primarily from the trio's '80s and '90s material, it's a...

. The song helped inspire Yarrow to found the non-profit organization Operation Respect, promoting tolerance and civility programs in education. The organization distributes curriculum programs under the "Don't Laugh At Me" name. In conjunction with this program, the song has been made into a children's book

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 including an afterword

Afterword

An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed....

by Yarrow. Part of the proceeds from the book go to Operation Respect.