Where’s Your Funnybone?

Does everyone have a sense of humor? The obvious answer is no, we all know someone who just doesn’t seem to have a humerus bone(get it?) in their body. The odd thing is, if they’re asked, I don’t think any of them would say they don’t enjoy humor.  Yet, half my life is spent feeling the water as to what jokes I can make in front of people.  The other half is getting myself out of trouble for the jokes I end up telling anyway. The reason is, humor isn’t universal.  Each one of us finds different things funny, with the negative side of this being, some people find nothing funny, or find it just plain offensive.

  What’s funny is that one of the main functions of humor is to increase sociability. Other benefits we know of are; happiness, decreased pain, decrease in stress, increase in learning/creativity, coping and countless others.  We need humor in order to survive.  Or maybe it’s that we only survive if we find humor.  What’s the difference ? It’s like ‘what came first the chicken or the egg.?’ Or  maybe it’s more like ‘why did the chicken cross the road?’ We have no reason to be so stiff about humor, it’s fluid.  Life, as horrible as it gets sometimes is still riddled with hysterics.  The only one allowed to be anti-humor is Eeyore, and he has a nail in his butt…. Which is still funny.  I’ve always associated “adulthood” with the absence of humor.  It’s why most people in my family never seem old to me, because at any age, we’re still ridiculously silly(think cart races in Ikea with mom, and toilet humor still reducing us to a fit of giggles). One of the best compliments I’ve gotten is that I keep my friend young.  Now granted, I happen to be a few years older than this friend, so the point is you have to let yourself remain silly. It doesn’t mean you can’t be professional or responsible.  Humor even has a necessary role in client relations.

Now as to the types of humor.  Find your niche.  Personally I’m a provider of puns, a sultan of sarcasm, a wrangler of wit and quite debonair in my deadpan. What can I say? It just tickles my fancy.  But that doesn’t have to be you.  Maybe slapstick slaps you silly.  Or knock-knock jokes knock you on your butt. Does all the alliteration aid in alleviating your ails? I’m getting desperate here to make my point. Laugh. That’s all I’m asking.  Smile and the world smiles with you, laugh and well..let’s find out.