People often tell me that I have a very dry sense of humor. I tend to come out of absolutely nowhere, ambush with a joke, and retreat into the bush before anyone realizes what's happened. A good friend of mine compared me to a humor ninja. What's amusing to me is how many people think I don't have much of a sense of humor at all. That makes me think about comedy in general. Why is something funny? Why do we poke fun at life's hardships? Why can we laugh even when it hurts to think about it?
Like beauty, humor is in the eye of the beholder. Professional humorists excel at pointing out the oddities in life and making us see them in new ways. Goofballs who do slapstick/physical comedy generally exaggerate behaviors to make them hilarious. There are hundreds of words describing something amusing, yet millions of ways of expressing them. I'd bet that one of the first things Adam said to Eve was a fart joke.
To answer my title question, sure anyone can be funny. Sometimes it just requires a bit of self-awareness and the ability to laugh at yourself. Naturally, like any skill, humor can be fine tuned and perfected. And, it can also be butchered badly. There's hardly worse humiliation than a joke that not only falls flat but digs its own grave. Don't let that worry you though. Most people appreciate a good joke, even a lame one. And, you may discover a real talent for comedy that you didn't even know you possessed.
So, wanna pull my finger?
- M
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