It’s probably healthy to have a good belly laugh once a day, but sometimes that’s not an easy prescription to fill. Not until I inadvertently stumble onto hilarity and laugh myself silly do I realize how long it’s been since the previous belly laugh session.
On some days, the glum days, absolutely nothing seems funny; not the jokey lady at the gas station (I’m glad my frustration with your payment device amuses you grrr) or the droll radio announcer (Ridiculing Saskatchewan’s fall “heat wave”? How is this funny?) or even my friend’s text notification sound – a loud duck noise that usually quacks me up (haha). The Facebook memes I’d screenshot for their great humour? Not funny a week later.
Interestingly, wait a few days and those memes might once again make me chuckle. The material hasn’t changed, so it must be moi. Apparently one’s sense of humour comes and goes. Lose it for a while, that’s okay – it’ll come back again.
I’ve been a sucker for funny stuff most of my life. Two favourite childhood books were about humour: a big hardcover called “Jokes, Riddles, and Funny Stories” and the little paperback “Jokes and More Jokes”. Things only got worse from there. I apologize retroactively to the relatives and friends I regaled with questionable juvenile comedy, because I was probably annoying as heck.
Unfortunately, I haven’t fully “outgroan” that trait, so apologies in advance for future “punny” business. However, I’m not sorry I found the material funny. Kids’ lives are hard sometimes, just like adults’, and a bit of comic relief makes for a happier kid. That’s my theory, anyway. So maybe that pesky pint-sized joker in your life deserves a break. Or better still, a laugh.
I mean, think about it. Did you never take heart from sharing a knock-knock joke with someone? “Knock knock!…“Who’s there?”…”Atch”…”Atch who?”…”Gesundheit!” — or an elephant joke? “How do you know an elephant has been in your fridge?”…”Footprints in the butter.” Were you never cheered by an episode of Bugs Bunny, Laugh-In, Bob and Doug Mackenzie, or whatever else your particular generation chortled at? Laughter just plain feels good, and not only for kids.
Recently, despite health and travel challenges, my siblings and I gathered together for a day. Some serious conversation took place, which was a good and necessary thing, but the best moments were those where we laughed until the tears came. “Remember when the laundry soap didn’t rinse out of that load of clothes, and we had itchy underpants all morning at school? Hahahaha!!!”… Well, maybe you had to be there.
But seriously, folks. Humour exists all around us, if we only look. A laughter fix might be right under your nose. And no, I’m not making fun of anyone’s moustache. There’s a reason the Daily Herald has a comic section – because people read it! Sometimes they even read it first.
Of course, a few funnies won’t take away the world’s tragedies, fights, hurts and injustices. But life as a “groan-up” is often hard, and a bit of comic relief makes for a happier adult. That’s my theory anyway, backed up by that expert in feel-good warm fuzzies, Dr. Seuss: “From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.”
Hmm. Anyone else suddenly have itchy underpants?