Confessions of a laughter snob
If I was a guest on Seinfeld, one of my (possible) nicknames would be The Non-Laugher, because in most cases, I do not laugh.
This has been something true of me since I was younger... my family would be sitting around the dining table, cracking jokes, and I would sit there, watching, and definitely not laughing. Or imagine watching a funny movie with me, say, Meet the Parents? Yup, nothing. Or even my beloved TV show Seinfeld, never a full blown laugh. It also doesn't help that I don't enjoy stand-up comedians, sex jokes, gender demeaning jokes, grosser than gross jokes, etc.
Then there is my husband, who happened to pick up on my lack of laughter over the years, and really enjoys trying to make me genuinely laugh. It is a tough job, but somehow, he has succeeded at it here and there to the point where I will literally fall out of my chair laughing. Even with his accomplishments, he continues to marvel when watching a comedy movie/TV show with me and I watch in complete silence.
I got to thinking, maybe it is not that I don't laugh, but it is that I am a laughter snob? I believe I could almost say, I don't want to give my laugh away to just any joke and so I save my laugh for the true gems. Oh wo/man, how horrible... I AM a total laughter snob!
But I don't wanna be a laughter snob!
Maybe I need to look at what does make me laugh so that I can try and laugh at more things?
Hmmm... the other day, while climbing at J&K's, I was up "high" and at the end of my limit / our problem when Kari was giving me some directions on where to go next. In my mind, I was not entirely listening to her (no offense Kari!) as I was physically "done" and just trying to get down in one piece when she shouted at me, "Are you ignoring me or do you not know your right from your left!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I was laughing so hard I fell off the wall! :)!
Or I recently made myself laugh. I wrote this joke, that was a little risque but at the same time funny on many different levels and when I "told" it to my husband he starting laughing hysterically and I was laughing so hard I strained my abs. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I crack myself up!
Or our kids. For some reason, when "things" happen the first time, I don't crack a laugh. But later when recounting the day's insanities around the dinner table to Josh or writing them out here on this blog, I find myself laughing at the craziness of it all... like I was interviewed about what makes me laugh, when I rarely laugh and then they had to take a picture for the article with my husband and I when my husband hates getting his photo taken or that when we got there for the photo of the 2 of us they wanted to take a picture of the whole family and the kids were dressed in their scrubby play clothes and all of their hairs were standing straight up... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Life cracks me up the second time around!
Or the only shows that makes me laugh outloud, watching The Colbert Report or Britian's IT Crowd... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Ok, sometimes they are not funny and crude/rude, but I really appreciate Colbert's political humor and the IT Crowd's computer geek humor... Colbert makes me not hate the politics that I wish I could be more politically active in and IT is so much like our company's work... HAHAHA!
Hmmmmm... I can see a pattern here... Life makes me laugh, generally the second time around, but makes me laugh never-the-less. When I am caught off guard or it is genuine or is not trying, life is simply hilarious.
Once again, this actually confirms one of my "life verses" adapted from an old song, "I don't want to start an blasphemous rumors, but I think that God's got a good sense of humor*." Ok ok, so that statement is fairly blasphemous, but when you have seen the poop prints on the sidewalk, I honestly think He is laughing with me.
What makes you laugh, outloud?
*It is actually "sick sense of humor," but dear me, I don't want to be completely blasphemous!
I'm not a non-laugher persay - but I have the tendency to SAY that something is funny, rather than laugh. I have to be caught off guard by something funny in order to actually laugh, but most often I will, instead, just comment, "That's funny." There's actually an episode of Scrubs, where the woman J.D. is dating (who I think was Mandy Moore), does this "That's funny" or "That's so funny." thing and it annoys him to no end. She's worse than I am, saying it over and over, but that's when I realized that rather than laughing at the episode, well, I did the same thing as her, "That's so funny." I asked Matt about it, who confirmed that I do it often, but it doesn't annoy him. I enjoy cheesy jokes, and puns in particular, and found out recently that after I catch one - I say "Ha." I don't laugh, I say the word, "Ha." Interesting thing is - my mom does the same thing - EXACT same thing, in the EXACT same situation, so obviously we know how that one developed. Note, she does not do "That's funny."
I'd have to say that I'm not usually a laugh-out-loud sort of person either. Aaron think it's weird when we're watching movies and he's dying laughing and I'm just sitting there - I've had to explain several times that it's not that I don't think it's funny, I just didn't laugh!! That said, I'll sometimes laugh so hard I can't breathe over really silly things that no one else is really laughing about if it catches me off guard. It's usually a good ab workout then!!
I am so glad to hear I am not alone in this! :)!
I enjoyed reading this--I felt my face brighten as I was reading it--thanks for sharing, Dana! I think it's good to think about what makes us laugh...and to do it.
I laugh at all things and sometimes probably when I shoudln't laugh :) But I like to laugh.. although I do not like my laugh.. funny how that works.. I think laughing just makes me feel better sometimes :)
Dana - I would never think to label you as a non-laugher because you are almost always so cheerful...but now I'll be paying attention and seeing if I can't get you to fall off the wall some more. ;)