Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Does anybody remember LAUGHTER?

Didn’t Led Zeppelin scream that out at some point? Good question. Does anyone remember laughter? A friend just asked me to go with her to a comedy class she’s taking. I’d just be there as an observer but it got me thinking. My corporate job is completely humorless. How many times a day do I laugh, smile or giggle at work? On the rare occasion that I do engage in one of those behaviors is it deemed inappropriate by anyone around me? We’ve become mostly humorless in the corporate world. One reason, of course, is that humor can be offensive which then involves those fun folks over in HR. It’s all so SERIOUS.

Funny is so many things to so many people but no matter what you think is funny it feels real good to laugh. I’m pretty comfortable with all sorts of humor. Fourth grade boys (and some girls) can’t seem to resist fart humor and silly titty humor. Teens overall seem to like humor that offends or makes fun of others. Andrew Dice Clay used to say that he didn’t discriminate, he offended everyone equally…but in his heyday he sure was funny. Sam Kinison, oh how I miss Sam Kinison with his screaming tirades. He could be offensive but damn he was funny. There was one routine he did about fighting over land in the middle east and he just kept screaming that it was SAND, SAND, SAND.

Sitcoms aren’t very funny anymore (and maybe they never were, I was just younger and less jaded); I think many of them are victims of political correctness sucking dry the laughter from the airwaves. We need to be a bit less politically correct. Let it all hang out. Laugh it up.

I can’t stand it anymore I want a good laugh. I want to laugh until my sides hurt and my head aches. There’s even a cult of laughter that has been growing for years (http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200502/therapy-the-laugh-track).

Is anyone laughing? Can anyone take or MAKE a joke anymore? The world is in serious trouble. There is some truly serious shit goin’ down. Maybe if we open our hearts and minds to the funny again, just a little, we’d be able to climb out of the sad little place we’ve found ourselves in.

C’mon people laugh. Laugh at yourself, laugh at that stupid thing you did or said. Let it all out, if you can’t find the funny then you’ve got some pretty serious issues. Maybe we need a laugh time in our day. Maybe in the most boring of meetings a good silly joke could break things up a bit.