“Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.”
The sky is cloudy white, and there was a mist earlier when I stood on the deck watching Gracie in the yard. Pine pollen has arrived, and my outside table top is green. I worked on the deck yesterday, and it is summer ready. All the plants were potted and the feeders filled, but the birds haven’t found the seeds yet. The red spawn of Satan did.
Humor changes over time. Being a kid meant being a bit gross and sometimes even a bit insensitive. Milk spurting from someone’s nose used to be one of the funniest things we’d ever seen. It sent us into spasms of laughter. Someone tripping and falling set us off as well. We’d try not to laugh but just couldn’t help ourselves. Catching a nose picker was a bonanza. We’d whisper and point and laugh. My father reprimanding us was sometimes far too funny. As he spoke, he’d be pointing and then tapping our chests with his finger, and we’d be holding back from laughing right out loud. My father often accused me of smirking. He was right. I was a great smirker. We were never mean or malicious. We just took advantage and laughed at anyone’s ill fortune. We were being kids.
In college we laughed all the time, sometimes at each other. That hadn’t changed from when we were little, but it had gotten a bit more sophisticated over time. If someone droned on, we’d all pretend to go asleep or turn our backs to the speaker who’d get indignant enough to make us laugh. Quick wits and snappy comebacks became our humor.
As adults, we still love the snappy comeback, and a good one rates a finger or two and an expletive from the victim. When we play games, we laugh all the time and make fun of each other, good-humored fun. Sometimes, in the middle of a sip, we laugh so much we spurt coke but never from our noses. We seem to have out-grown that.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
May 28, 2011 at 11:00 am
Here the sky is cloudy grey and now some drizzle falls. But I´ve been active today 🙂 I´ve dug up an old bird bath that someone once made of concrete and stone. It was so heavy that I almost fainted when I moved it to another place 🙂 🙂 I´ve also cut down mu gigantic clematis ‘Propertius’. A bug that only eats small flowered clematises has attacked it every year since long and the only way to stop it is to cut down the clematis, perhaps for several years in a row.
It´s fun to see how different humor is all around the world. I´ve grown up with british and american humor so that is what I like, but I really don´t understand german humor 🙂 I´ve seen a chinese comedy once and I didn´t get it at all 🙂 🙂
The humor in Gothenburg is different from the one they have in Stockholm, our capital as well. I don´t know if they have humor at all in Finland though 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
May 28, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Christer,
The sun came out this afternoon but it was still cooler than yesterday. I actually know what a clematis is-amazing for me who only know colors.
It’s true about different countries. Sometimes I don’t get British humor except I do love all those comedies-those are different than a guy standing there and telling jokes.
I have seen some Jackie Chan movies, and he’s funny.
May 28, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Without humor we’d all be lunatics. This is a great post. Brilliantly structured.
May 28, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Lafemmeroar,
Totally true-humor saves the day sometimes and turns awful into funny.
Thank you for your kind words!
May 28, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Laughing at guys trying to pick up girls at the local bar was hilarious for me. The girls would blow these nerds off like strong wind. We would all laugh at the guy because he had the nerve but no really good looking college girl would give them the time of day. I remember pulling pranks all through elementary school to High School, those were fun. We called them “yuks” and “Gotcha” but I think I’ve outgrown the silliness of the time but it was great fun back then.
May 28, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Z&Me,
I remember hearing some really awful pick-up lines. We blew them off but nicely-poor nerds.
We never were prank pullers. I don’t know why as I love a good prank.
May 28, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Just in case:
Cheers
May 29, 2011 at 12:43 am
Minicapt,
It is the last thing I’m watching before I go to bed-nice and funny way to end the evening!
Kat