A Funny Thing Happened

Can’t find anything to laugh about? Laugh anyway!

I sometimes crack myself up. This morning I read a poem (Seawater) from one of my favorite Medium poets, James G Brennan, and highlighted a couple of verses. Then I commented on how much I loved the image of a person sitting in a coffee shop, staring at his phone, waiting for it to ring with news of a job, perhaps.

After posting the comment, I scrolled down through the other responses. At the bottom, I was surprised to see someone had highlighted the same two verses that I had and their response started out the same as mine. Looking up to see who had reacted in the same way to the same verses, I saw my own name!

Such was my state of mind.

Yesterday, a friend sent me a bunch of visual jokes. One shows a woman interviewing with a recruiter for a job:

The recruiter says, “We’re looking for someone who can do the work of two men.” The lady responds, “Oh, so it’s only part-time.”

Another shows a golfer saying, “I hit two good balls yesterday…… I stepped on a rake!”

Then there’s the bald barber who always carries a comb. He just can’t part with it.

And how about these:

1. ARBITRATOR A cook that leaves Arby’s to work at McDonald’s. 2. BERNADETTE The act of torching a mortgage. 3. BURGLARIZE What a crook sees through. 4. AVOIDABLE What a bullfighter tries to do.

5. COUNTERFEITER Workers who put together kitchen cabinets. 6. LEFT BANK What the bank robbers did when their bag was full of money. 7. HEROES What a man in a boat does. 8. PARASITES What you see from the Eiffel Tower. 9. PARADOX Two physicians. 10. PHARMACIST A helper on a farm.

I just saw on the news where they are asking people to check on the elderly. I’m usually up by 6:30. Bring donuts!

And this: What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

Here’s one I could have submitted: “My wife said you never listen to me, or something like that.”

A sign in front of a church just before Ash Wednesday read:

“Get your ash in church — Wed 8:15 a.m.”

And one that is appropriate for me:

“I’ve taken care of my procrastination — You just wait and see!”

Dr. Dale L Anderson, M.D., (I call him the laugh doc) says we need at least three good belly laughs a day, real gut splitters are best, to maintain good health. If I’m honest, I fall way short of that mark. I’ll bet you do, too. What say we work on meeting our laugh quota? Try it and see if you don’t feel better. Who knows, you may even live longer.

And who doesn’t know about the Reader’s Digest column: Laughter the Best Medicine? I’ve read it for years.

However, humor is a funny thing (pardon the pun), some things strike us as hilarious, others meant to be funny fall flat. What’s funny can depend on our mood. And a joke seldom seems as funny the second time.

No doubt you’ve heard of people curing themselves of illnesses by binge-watching comedies. Could that be why we were healthy kids? We watched a lot of cartoons. In fact, when I was growing up, Saturday morning programming on TV consisted of nothing but cartoons. The Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote were my favorites, but Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd were always good for a laugh, too. Come to think of it, I never met a cartoon character I didn’t like.

Now, news programs full of negativity and horrendous events had taken that Saturday morning time slot. If we truly want to be happy and laugh more, we’ve got to tune out some of that negativity and tune into things that make us laugh or at least smile.

Like most of my friends, growing up I had a box of old comic books stashed under my bed for those dreaded, rainy indoor days. Though I enjoyed reading them, I must admit they weren’t always funny.

I think we laughed easier back then. Perhaps because we were kids and the world had not yet jaundiced us, or perhaps life really was less daunting; either way, we laughed a lot.

So, want to live a healthier life? Laugh more and remember to make others laugh, too. Hopefully, they’ll be laughing along with you and not at you.

Surprisingly, Dr. Anderson says that even fake laughs have a beneficial effect that nearly equals that of the real thing. Besides, if you do a seriously grand fake laugh, you’ll likely find yourself doing the real thing.

Want to learn more about the benefits of laughter and how to bring it on? Visit Dr. Anderson’s site www.acthappy.com. There, Dr. Anderson will tell you to “act happy for the health of it.” And, if you’re into your silver or golden years, as I am, he’ll tell you to “Knock the EL out of _derly and become WELLderly!”

I still laugh remembering the time Dr. Anderson visited our Senior Christmas luncheon at my church several years ago. He had all of us stand and do a fake laugh. We’d start with a “Ha,” then a “Ha-Ha,” and finally erupt into Ha-ha-ha-ho-ho-ho… We soon got into it and had each other in stitches. It works. Try it!

Someone saw this message on one of those mobile signs outside a car wash:

Wash and Vacuum Senior Citizens $14.95

No doubt they had the cleanest seniors in town.

This morning I woke up to this:

If you want to start your day with a good laugh, You just can’t beat Harvey Korman and Tim Conway.

Blessings on your day, dear friends. I hope this will help you laugh your way through it.

As I haven’t published much for a while, I’m tagging a few friends, fellow reader/writers to let you know I’m trying to get back to a regular schedule of writing again:

FILZA CHAUDHRY, Charlotte Zobeir Ali, Amy Marley, Neha Sandhir S, Rasheed Hooda, Holly Jahangiri, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Aurora Eliam, CMP, Terry Mansfield, Tree Langdon, Henery X, Annelise Lords, Trista Ainsworth, Desiree Driesenaar, Dr John Rose, Helen Cassidy Page, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Tim Maudlin, Riku Arikiri, Caroline de Braganza, Sherry McGuinn, Lauren Shepley, Simran Kankas, Saloni Joshi, Paul Myers MBA, Kevin Buddaeus, Julia E Hubbel, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D., Dipti Pande, Dew Langrial, Chowa Sekai, Agnes Louis,

Thank you for honoring me with your time. Comments always gratefully received.

Happy Reading, Writing and Connecting!

May I offer these suggestions for your further enjoyment?