I believe that we do the world a disservice when we laugh at the
jokes and musings of unfunny people.
We all have done it- maybe we were trying to be polite…
maybe we wanted to spare one’s feelings… maybe the joker was extremely
good-looking so we laughed out of sheer attraction to the person and not to
what was actually coming out of his or her mouth…
Whatever the reason, we are really making the world a more
uncomfortable place for us all because of this nonsense. And now-God help us-we
have a pandemic level of people walking around making everyone feel
uncomfortable with their awful yarn.
Now, I’m sure you’ve been there before- staring at the
expectant face as you try to muster up uproarious- or at least convincing-
laughter at an ill-delivered joke… or giving a wry smile or “harrumph” of
acknowledgment, just so you can get past the whole unfunny business and get on
with your life. What about that moment when you’re in a crowd of people all
staring at their toes as, to everyone’s chagrin, the unfunny person repeats the
joke for the third time because the crowd “didn’t get it” the first two times…
Maybe your spouse is the wannabe funnyman/woman so you are
forced to laugh out of solidarity as your friends give you and him the side eye
and roll their eyes heavenward… Maybe you yourself are a genuinely funny
person, so you act as something of a “clean-up” funnyman, providing a clever
aside to your friend’s terrible joke, making everyone forget about the
god-awful beginning of the thing. Unfortunately, truly funny people are constantly under attack by unfunny people who corner them with bad jokes to get the validation of their laugh...
Maybe you've found yourself in a situation in which you were unable to dignify a terrible joke with a
laugh so you said, “Oh, that’s funny.” If you have done this, please know that you have committed an offense more
egregious than false laughter by giving an explicit false declaration of
hilarity instead of sticking to the ambiguity that a laugh could have provided...
Now I know what you're thinking- this is a random (and much too long) rant if there ever was
one. And believe you me; I do not deliver this rant from a funny “high-horse,”
as my own particular brand of humor is routinely misunderstood (I suspect many
of you will not find this rant to be funny in the least and I really did try…). However, we as the victims of our unfunny bosses, friends, coworkers, spouses, lovers, and
acquaintances must unite together and say, “No more!”
And here comes the rallying cry:
No more shall we allow unfunny folks to continue on as the
“American Idol rejects” of humor, oblivious to their own lack of comedic
talent.
No more shall we feel compelled to politely smile at that
Black/blonde/redneck joke everyone wishes Uncle Billy would stop telling in
front of your Black/blonde/redneck boyfriend.
No more shall we laugh at the
CEO/CFO’s jokes at the company cookout... because rich, old white men are only
funny to other rich, old white men and they need to know that…
No more shall we feel further obligation to laugh in order
to spare one’s feelings; and, for heaven’s sake, no longer shall we- in flirtatious effort- laugh at the jokes of some good-looking cornball who wouldn’t know funny if it was written on his or her pretty little forehead.
It is our duty, nay, our responsibility to make sure
that the unfunny no longer live in this jaded world that we’ve allowed them to
live in. From henceforth, now and forever more, the only sound the unfunny will
hear is the sound of crickets chirping!
-Anyway… I didn’t mean to go on for this long… but
seriously- life is too short for forced emotion so free your soul. End the
cycle of awkward laughter.
Have a genuinely uproarious day... or not... it's your
choice, you know.
-Happy living!
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