The Human Comedy

One of my most obvious qualities is that I always try to find the humor in everything. While I tend to think this is an excellent quality, particularly for a blogger, it must be said that it's not universally admired. Some would say, for example, that there's a fine line between "finding the humor in everything" and "refusing to take anything seriously."

At minimum, I think I have become a little more savvy about it than when I was in third grade. I still remember that one day, something struck me as funny (no idea what, at this late date), and I actually stood up to share this comic gem with the rest of the class. Alas, Miss Hunt was not amused, and I was summarily dispatched toward the principal's office. I say "toward" because I was so terrified of Getting In Trouble that I merely lingered in the hallway till I thought a sufficient interval had passed for the punishment I was sure to receive -- 39 lashes with a metal-studded whip, I suppose -- and slunk back into the room. Miss Hunt, it seemed to me even then, was not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, and I suspect she never figured it out. Gee... I sure hope she's not reading this!

All these years later, I'm hoping to become an adult any day now; I confess I succumb more often than not to the temptation to slip a joke into an e-mail memo at work. And I still get sent to the principal's office from time to time. One day we were inundated with "leaving early" memos, so finally I sent one that said, "I've thought it over and I've decided to stay till 5:00." One of my closest colleagues got in my face about that one, and it was only later that I found out he was headed to a doctor's appointment because he was facing a serious health issue.

As my son would say, "Is that funny? No." It's not a rhetorical question for him; he's just really working to master the twisted internal logic of the Knock-Knock Joke. So he tries to make one up, then he looks at me quizzically: "Is that funny? No."

My daughter has no such torments of self-doubt. She will initiate a knock-knock joke, then end it with a string of words that would be several sentences, if they were sentences. Or (sometimes) even words. But she always laughs uproariously, as if being tickled by the feathers of a thousand geese.

When they get a little older, perhaps I can make them understand that there's no need to "make up jokes" -- there's plenty of comedy lying in the road.

Or driving on the road: every time I see the IBS Septic Service truck go by, I wonder if the guy who named it knows what else IBS stands for.

Or beside the road: when the local florist puts up a sign that says "Everyday Sympathy Weddings", I imagine she really meant to make that one descriptive phrase, rather than a bulleted list of 3 distinct occasions.

Or beside another road: I recently saw a highway historical marker put up by the state Highway Superintendents. It was commemorating the first meeting of the State Highway Superintendents. Glad they didn't have to convene a blue-ribbon panel, or even do much research, to come up with that one.

And finally (oh, who are we kidding? More like, "enough for now"), I'm not even sure if this is funny in the Three Stooges pie-in-the-face sense, but the irony is so abundant that I just had to share:

Away back in the early sixties -- in that benighted era we now know as "before I was born" -- there was a famous incident in which Jack Paar, then-host of the Tonight Show, walked off the program and basically went on strike. The previous evening, the NBC censor had removed a joke he told as being too offensive for even sophisticated late-night viewers, and Jack took it personally.

I recently heard that same joke told on the air... by a radio preacher who was using it as a sermon illustration. The joke itself, that is, not the controversy. I can't remember what the point of the joke was to be; all I could think about was the irony. And I'm not sure what, if anything, all of this proves... except, maybe, once and for all, that God has a sense of humor.