  Comedy
This week: The Downside Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.
-Maya Angelou
Humor can make a serious difference. In the workplace, at home, in all areas of life – looking for a reason to laugh is necessary. A sense of humor helps us to get through the dull times, cope with the difficult times, enjoy the good times and manage the scary times.
-Steve Goodier
As Carrie Fisher once said in a film, everyone thinks they have good taste and a sense of humour.
-Jane Green |
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Many centuries ago, when I was a kid, I began the process of developing the personality traits that make people shun me today. One of these was my sense of humor.
It was a rocky process, fraught with hazards and difficulties. One such hazard was that, like every other teenager in the history of ever, no one really understood me.
And this got me in trouble more than once.
But one incident sticks out in my mind, because it taught me about the inherent unfairness of life - and how to keep a sense of humor anyway.
I don't remember too many details. But I do know it was music class, because instead of a desk, the teacher involved had a stool behind one of those stands you stick sheet music on. Said teacher/conductor went to sit on her stool, her eyes went wide, and she leapt off the seat and inspected it, picking something up between thumb and forefinger.
She held up a thumbtack and said, "Okay, who's the joker?"
Now, I want you all to understand two things that I know, with 100% certainty, are absolutely true facts:
1) The old "thumbtack on the chair" thing is always funny;
2) I did not put this particular thumbtack on this particular chair.
So, because of Truth #1 above, when she held up that tack and surveyed the orchestra with all seriousness, I, alone of the entire string section, guffawed.
You might say my reaction was... tacky.
Consequently, the teacher jumped to the conclusion that I put the thumbtack on her stool, and no amount of denial from me convinced her - or just about anyone else - otherwise. Not the teacher; not my classmates; not the principal; and certainly not my parents.
I got in big, big trouble. It probably says something about my psychology that I clearly remember the tack, the teacher's reaction to the tack, and the immediate laughter it generated from me, but I have no memory of the punishment I unfairly received as a result of the Tack Incident, except that it was grossly disproportionate to the alleged crime. It probably didn't help that my defense essentially consisted of "I didn't do it, but I did think it was hilarious."
So yeah - sometimes having a sense of humor will get you in trouble.
What haunts me to this day, though, is not the punishment (which, as I said, I don't remember) or the unfairness of being accused of something that I know I didn't do. No, those things were lessons learned and things to get used to in a life that is inherently unfair. What haunts me is that somewhere out there is at least one person who knows, beyond any doubt whatsoever, that I was innocent of putting a tack in the teacher's chair - because that person DID put the tack in the teacher's chair.
I laughed for about five seconds when the teacher held up that tack. That individual is probably still laughing.
And if I ever find that miscreant, they'll find that I don't have a statute of limitations. |
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Last time, in "Spring Is Here" , I talked about the weather.
Quick-Quill  : The weather isn't fun. However the result makes watching youTube video's of people trying to navigate icy paths something to laugh about. Cars trying to get up a hill or having no control while sliding down a hill. Whatever tickles your fancy you can find something about the weather on good old YouTube to laugh about and ease the length of time until you can get out to the garden
Schadenfreude makes for potent laughter.
And that's it for me for now - see you next time! Until then,
LAUGH ON!!!
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Comedy: May 02, 2018 Issue [#8874]
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