A to Z: Just Joking

When I was around 7, my mother took me and some friends to the movies to see Peter Sellers in The Party. We laughed until we cried, until it hurt to laugh, and we didn't want to laugh anymore but we just couldn't stop. The movie sticked in my mind as the funniest movie ever.

Skip forward almost a decade. My high school sweetheart, his best friend, and I are browsing for a good movie at a video rental place (this is the late eighties--no DVDs, but I think we'd graduated from Beta to VHS). On a shelf at the back I catch a glimpse of Sellers' trademark goofy face. The Party.

"This one! Guys, this one--it's so good."


I was so psyched--I'd get to see this fantastic move again, and I'd get to share its laugh-till-it-hurts stuff with my sweetie. So you can imagine my flabbergasted-ness that he and his buddy laughed but once in the hour or so of the movie.


Once.

At a bit I hadn't found that funny to begin with.

Source: www.hohohahaha.com

I admit, my sense of humor isn't mainstream. I constantly laugh myself out of breath over stuff that leaves others merely smiling (and vice versa). So perhaps it's me (it's not you). But I think there's something more here.

My dad was a practical joker. He went to all sorts of extremes to set up a joke for someone--who usually didn't find it the least bit amusing. But my dad didn't care. The world was his entertainment, and he enjoyed it fully. If you didn't like the joke, or got upset about it (yeah, a lot of people did), he only laughed harder--and retold the story over and over to anyone who'd listen.

My mother hated it. Why she married the man is something not even she understands.

The point is, humor follows no rules. What makes someone laugh isn't necessarily even smile-able for someone else. But--hear me now--it's very important that you find at least one person that shares your sense of humor. Keep them close, once you find them.

Laughing--belly-ache hard--is a gift for yourself. For your body, for your spirit. But if you share it... Well, then, it becomes a gift also for the world.

What makes you laugh?