"WHAT'S SO FUNNY ?"

 

Well, sometimes Twain's  humor could be a tad "over the top" as  could his choice of words. He could  swear a blue streak to the chagrin of his good Christian wife. Eventually, she decided to put an end to his cussin'. Then one day he nicked himself while shaving and let out a stream of profanity that probably turned the room purple.She promptly repeated to him every word.  Stunned for a moment by her pluck, he recovered, smiled and said,"My dear! You got all the words right, but you don't know the tune !"

   When  I first heard that story, I didn't laugh aloud but I did think it 'funny'. Maybe because of the incongruity of it all.  Humor implies  the comical and absurdity in life. 

   What makes something 'funny' or 'humorous' for you? Or, to use a colloqualism, 'what tickles you?'  For me, it ranges from the slapstick, the 'dad jokes' (ok, well some of them) to the delightful puns. Despite that some nay-sayers deem puns 'the lowest form of humor', I think that they can be either delightfully subtle or blatantly obvious witticisms . There is one making the rounds in anticipation of tomorrow's solar eclipse: " Dad, can you explain a solar eclipse?"  "No sun". (speak it, don't just read it)

   The purposes or functions  of humor are numerous. It often serves as a kind of 'leveling the playing field' with a 'punching up' by those further down the socio-economic or power spectrum. 'Punching down', on the other hand, is cruel and demonstrates baser facets of character.  An example of the former occurred during my high school baseball practice when the coach's car parked on an incline in deep center field began rolling  down the hill. The coach (the authority figure) standing at home plate incredulously exclaimed, "Yonder goes my car !" Norman White (the student playing catcher) began rolling in hysterics. Coach's retort of "Not funny, White !" added to the  laughter.

   'Punching down', on the other hand, implies an attitude of  superiority whether in social status, wealth, race, gender, speech handicaps or physical blemishes.  Those are mockery.

    Recently I heard Garrison Keillor confess that as people get older, they get funnier. Once in my 20's, when   I had three times complimented 90+ year old Mrs. Caviness on her dress, she quipped, "Don't  strain your conscience, young man  ."

   This afternoon when I  told my daughter of my blog idea, she mentioned a Harvard research study on laughter.  Use your search engine to find 'Harvard research studies on laughter' and you will find several good explanations as to why laughter is good for the soul . . .   and for the body also.

     Satchel