What's Funny

One of the more subjective things in our lives is humor. What's funny to me might be serious to you. Uh, as in my comment that your new and dear hat is an abomination that only Elton John would wear. I mean it as joke, but your love of that hat just causes hurt and resentment when I point out its look. It's an extreme example, but it does illustrate that humor is hard to define.

I laughed readily when I saw the internet video sensation of the woman walking in a shopping mall, so absorbed in her cell phone, that she fell into the mall water fountain. No doubt she didn't think it was funny. Humor is the juxtaposition of the real and hard to believe, or the more simply, the tragic and the typical. To make us laugh, something has to touch some emotion we have. But we don't all react the same way emotionally.

Here are some things that I think are funny and some I think not funny. I bet you will disagree on quite a few. Funny to me would be Benny Hill. Not funny is Jim Carey. I think someone passing gas in church is hysterical, and I will laugh loudly when it happens but passing gas at a football game isn't funny to me. The old Laurel and Hardy films are a riot for me. But watching a Jerry Seinfeld monologue is a pain in the rear.

I never laugh at that guy's jokes. When ex President George Bush used to mangle the language while speaking in public I laughed at his lack of ability to use English. But I am sure his supporters didn't laugh at all. Comic Steve Martin is almost always funny to me. I think I anticipate he will be funny and start laughing before he even starts his joke. When Rosanne Barr comes on stage I already have determined not to laugh, a kind of negative predetermination I have toward her. It's because "I just don't think she is funny".

Having a funny attitude is a positive way of viewing life and one's role in the world. A good sense of humor has many benefits, from personal happiness to making one more likable to others. It also is healthy to see the lighter side of life, particularly when there is darkness all around. And that's no joke.