Why did the cow have a bell around its neck?
That was the first joke I ever learned. My Uncle Robbie told it to me and my sister when we were about five years old and even though Uncle Robbie has passed on, whenever I tell that joke I laugh and think of him.
According to Wikipedia, “Laughter is an audible expression or appearance of excitement, an inward feeling of joy or humour. It may ensue from jokes, tickling and others. Researchers have shown infants as early as 17 days old have vocal laughing sounds or laughter. Robert R. Provine indicated, “Laughter is a mechanism everyone has; laughter is part of universal human vocabulary. There are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone speaks laughter in pretty much the same way.” Everyone can laugh. Babies have the ability to laugh before they ever speak. And here’s the part that I find really amazing, children who are born blind and deaf still retain the ability to laugh. In short, laughter is good, extremely good; laughter spans boarders, religions, race, colour, age and gender and a few animals too. And these days anything so beneficial, anything free that makes people so happy is a welcome relief from constant stress of life.
I find that these days we as a society have become a very impatient and serious. If we don’t get an Internet connection in less than two seconds or can’t get through on our cell phones immediately, we get upset. If a person is driving 40mph in the 50mph zone we blast our horns because the world will end if we are five minutes late for our lunch date and heaven forbid we leave our cell phone at home or (gasp) lose it all together, we freak out because if someone can’t call us 24/7 life cannot go on as we know it.
Whatever happened to slowing down & simply enjoying life and laughing? Think about it, when was the last time you really laughed, when was the last time you told a joke or your kid said something silly, when was the last time you walked into something or tripped when there was nothing there and simply laughed at the stupidity of it all?
Those of you who know me know I work at The Reef Resort the other day a seemingly intelligent guest noticed that the badge my co-worker was wearing said she was from Jamaica, the guest wanted to know, quite honestly, if she flew in to work every day, now that’s funny.
Horse walks into a bar & the bartender looks at him and says “why the long face?” What’s a pirate’s favourite vegetable? Arrrrtichoke.
Didn’t at least one of these jokes make you at least giggle? There are shows on TV like America’s Funniest Home Videos and Top Gear and movies like Jackass and anything with Adam Sandler that are incredibly popular, why, because they make us laugh, because people doing stupid things (as long as nobody gets hurt) is funny, really funny. Watching a person catch a water balloon or a cat take a bath is funny and who hasn’t laughed hysterically at an ill timed fart, you can’t help it; it just feels good!
Every month I get my CUC bill and have a minor heart attack, then I go home and my daughter tells me how her cold is making her nose feel constipated or my sister will tell me about how she’s putting a fish bowl on wheels and making it look like a dog, so her friend who can’t have four legged pets in his building will have something to walk and I can’t help but laugh. It makes me feel a better, sneaking up and scaring someone in the shower makes me giggle and my sister’s driving mishaps really make me laugh, a lot, and when you laugh, you forget about the bills and just feel happy. When was the last time you saw something so funny that you laughed until you cried, a really belly laugh, think about it, or have you ever been all alone and thought of something funny and laughed even when no one could hear?
I find my life very stressful these days, bills are higher and salaries are lower and yet despite my pleas my kids simply refuse to stop growing. There is more pressure than ever before to perform well at work because if we don’t, others would gladly take our jobs. So with all that swirling around us I think it’s more important than ever that we laugh as much as we can. And to help in that noble cause I will personally do my best to keep those around me laughing too. It might take sneaking up on them, tickling may be involved maybe a little sarcasm and possibly a well timed fart, (just to blame the dog).
But I guarantee the results will be well worth it.
This is what I am thankful for, that I have the ability to make people laugh, and so do you, try it, it’s fun, go on and tell a corny joke, make a silly face and make someone giggle.
Have a laughing holiday season.
Cathy Richardson
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