I like humor, but I've come to understand how subjective humor is. If good humor were a science, we'd have rehab for movie addicts. Laughing makes me feel good. If I could figure out a way to laugh every time, all I'd do is do the thing, or watch the thing, that makes me laugh. Soon I'd be jobless and homeless and I'd hit what's known as "my bottom," and most likely, I wouldn't be laughing anymore.
Absurd overstatements or subtle (and absurd) understatements are the things that make me laugh. The movies "Anchorman" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" are examples, respectively, of the kinds of over and understatements that make me laugh. Ron Burgundy is the protagonist in "Anchorman," a local news anchor so full of himself that he makes me look humble. We see him primping with a hand mirror in the first few minutes of the movie as he prepares to go live on the evening news, when suddenly he declares, "I look good, I look really good." Then the absurd part. He says, "Hey everybody, come see how good I look."
One of the complex things about humor is that what makes me laugh are things that are absurd but have a faint (or not so faint) ring of truth in them, things I recognize as my own character defects, the twists and distortions of my psyche and personality.
Be honest. Which of us has not, at some point, maybe while getting ready to attend a wedding or something, has not looked in the mirror and, instead of the usual indifference, thought to ourselves, "I look good, I look really good." Thankfully, most of us don't shout out for everyone to come see how good we think we look. I guess that's impulse control at its most basic form.
A good friend once suggested that I not judge my own insides, who I really am, by other people's outsides. That is to say, don't measure my own worth by what I perceive others to be, based on how they look, what they drive, where they live, et al. I can really fall into that trap, and I do so on a fairly regular basis. It brings out the old "less than" monster, the feeling that says, "See. I knew I was a loser. This is just tangible proof."
Just being aware that I tend to do that helps quite a bit. I don't know much of anything about others beyond what I see on the outside. I have no idea how patient, tolerant, or kind they are. I mention those three attributes because that's what I aspire to, not because that's what I think everyone else should aspire to. I realize I'm a long way from being as patient, tolerant, or kind as I someday hope to be. But I'm definitely not as impatient, intolerant, or unkind as I have been in the past.
It's a good day. I'm above ground, and I can practice. By the way, you look really good.
