How to Laugh Out Loud
Wanda Sykes at the 2009 White House Correspondents' Dinner
How...
... Should I Know What You're Going To Find Funny?
I don't, but I will try to figure it out until I fall flat on my face. I'll tell you right now, I'm not funny. But I know funny when I see it. Let me confess that I'm the least funny person in my family. But think about what that implies. I spent a good portion of my childhood in laughing hyaena histrionics. It was hysterical. A rollicking circle of aunts and uncles, with my father presiding as MC, sitting around my Grandma's table playing poker for pennies, huge slabs of watermelon in the center, a pot of coffee perking on the stove (these wild folks were not big drinkers... so when they did mix some rum and cokes, you wanted a front row seat!). My mother would be doubled over, tears streaming down her face. Once or twice, they had to shove me in a cold shower to break my spasm. Those are my fondest childhood memories. But what was so funny? They were. Certainly not me.
Monty Python - The Origin of Spam
To Be Or Not To Be...Crude?
I've been pondering what makes humor funny and why so many things that are offensive make people laugh. Sigmund Freud explored this topic deeply (book titles to come... Humor and the Unconscious? Dear Reader, enlighten me).
So much comedy is offensive to someone. I was wondering if it would be oxymoronic to create a category called "Refined Humor". I suppose that would be Monty Python acting royal. This is a long winded way of apologizing if any of the clips contained within offend anyone in any way. I consider myself a politically correct person but things that make me laugh maybe not so much.
Whoopie Goldberg at Bravo
Laugh
Hee hee, hee hee, heeeeeeeee, ahhhhhh, ha, ha, hee heeeeeeeeee.................Do you really need something funny to happen? Just think about how funny it is to just laugh, out of nowhere. It's catching. Do it for yourself. Do it for humanity.
Out
Hello Dolly! You'll never look at a feather boa the same way again.
Loud
Why is blowing your nose so funny?
What Kind of Funny Did You Expect?
Humor is subjective. Yes, it's very subjective. I know what, and who, makes me laugh. Whoopie Goldberg. Things as far from each other as Kathy Griffin and Blue Collar TV. Bernie Mac. Monty Python and Carlos MencĂa. SCTV. Ali G.