Author: John Cane

Have you ever gotten into a ‘serious funk’?  Of course you have…silly question, right?  Or is it?  Most people (including me) don’t like to admit that we can get caught up in matters that aren’t so serious to others.  This doesn’t make them insignificant or unimportant.  However, sometimes it’s necessary to just back off of the problem at hand.  One of the best ways to do this is by finding the absurdity of your own personal focus on the issue at hand.  How can we do this?  Many times it can be just by comparison; looking at things across situations which could be worse.  For example, I live in a really nice apartment with great neighbors, great neighborhood, and a very fair landlord.  There are times that I will get into a funk about family matters, a business deal, relationship, friendship, etc.  Yet I conveniently forget about how lucky I am to have what I do have.  I have gotten better at reminding myself of the good stuff, my blessings, but it is something I need to make into a habit.  The pay off though is that it is very funny in the moment when I realize how silly, arrogant, boohoo-ish, poor me, I am being.  It really is absurdly funny…to me. When I realize that, there is this really nice sense of relief.

The comedian, D.L. Hugely once said in his stand-up act in reference to the state of the world that, “It ain’t that bad, people”.  When he said that, something clicked in me that he was right…it could be worse.  It could. There was something about the truthful absurdity of that moment that made me smile inside and out.  I mean the obvious to me is all these people are in the audience, which they all were fortunate enough to afford to come and gather together civilly and create an opportunity to laugh.  That’s pretty funny to me…to me. What am I trying to say here?  As Bill Cosby once said, “Laughter is the best alternative medicine”.   When handling the many challenges of life, what if we were to look at our dilemma not so seriously?  What if we were to look at our “problem” and think of the funniest or stupidest thing we could do to solve it?  What if?

If we can own our “sense” of humor, and I do mean ‘own up to’ our own point of view, it gives us a personal sense of control.  It was once said, “You can’t see the picture if you’re in the frame”.  Step out of the frame for a bit and look at your picture.  See anything new?

The following article is an introduction to many articles to come regarding exercising our personal sense of humor.  Humor does amazing things for the mind, body, and Spirit.  Happy laughing!

The “Sense” of a Sense of Humor

Author: Ryan O’Loughlin

What is a sense of humor? This article will briefly attempt to quantify what a sense of humor is, and ask revealing questions about a sense of humor. It will explain cultural and moral differences in senses of humor. Ultimately, the article will conclude that there is no objective sense of humor in the individual or societal or even moral sense.

For centuries and even today, a desirable quality in human beings is a sense of humor. A sense of humor is essentially a sense or feel for what is funny. But this is precisely the question. What is funny?

If something is funny, it makes you laugh. Laughter is associated with positive feelings and an overall feeling of euphoria and enjoyableness. Laughter and funnyness fall under the umbrella of humor.

Humor is situational. It’s all about context. In comedy, timing is everything. People can laugh at jokes, situations, images, pictures, videos. Essentially the whole scope of life can contain humor.

It is no secret that many people have many different senses of humor. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “dry sense of humor.” I compare a sense of humor to personality: Some people have similar ones, but everyone’s (sense of humor, or personality) are different.

I may find things funny that you do not.

This leads us to something deeper: sense of humor in a cultural level. Some cultures, such as Australians, poke fun and each other and insult each other. In this culture, insults and name calling are all in fun. However, in other cultures, these insults will be taken seriously and personally. As most people know, being talked about by others in a negative light is not always pleasant, but depending on the situation and the culture, it can be a funny experience for all of the parties involved.

Sense of humor analyzed at a moral level also shows that different people and different cultures have different senses of humor. Some people laugh at other people’s misfortunes. For me personally, this is morally unacceptable. But to others, it is not. The point is that humor can also have a dark side with malice or masochistic undertones.

In the holocaust, there were accounts of using humor to survive. Even in the most hellish conditions on earth, a sense of humor was derived!

To me, the evidence is clear that there is no objective sense of humor. Everyone has a different sense of humor, while some are similar. Different cultures find different things funny, and people whose morals differ find different things funny.

There is no right or wrong answer to finding something funny. Everyone has different perceptions and everyone laughs at different things.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/humor-articles/the-sense-of-a-sense-of-humor-2403064.html

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