Posts Tagged: humor

“Humor During a Serious Plague”

On March 25, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“All the days of the oppressed are wretched,

but he cheerful heart has a continual feast.”  (Proverbs 15:15, New International Version)

Call it a “pandemic,” or call it by an old-fashioned name like a “plague,” or call it macaroni, if you like.  This coronavirus outbreak is a serious matter.  It needs to be treated as such.  In fact, it is well past serious. It left serious in the rearview mirror weeks ago.  It is now downright grim, and likely to become much grimmer.

However, even in times like these, humor is important.  Perhaps especially in times like these, humor is essential.

So, today’s blog post—without glossing over how serious this plague-ish pandemic is—is going to risk (possibly) making you laugh.

First (and this is in the rather grim humor category), is an occurrence from a grocery store whose name shall remain anonymous.  (I will give you a hint: An anagram for the name of the store is rekorg.)

I was in the coffee aisle, with my mask and latex gloves on, trying to find some flavored coffee.  I usually buy whatever is cheapest at General Dollar, but I decided that, since the world was coming to an end, I would treat myself to some nicer coffee.  As I was shelf-reading the coffee aisle, my eyes suddenly were jolted wide open, as if I had just had a double-shot of espresso.  For there on the shelf was a coffee called—and I am not making this up—“DEATH WISH”!  It even had the skull-and-crossbones on the package. Where do coffee companies come up with the names for all these specialty coffees? In view of what we are going through right now, this one should probably be retired.

Second story.

I was sitting in the rocker watching a rerun of Adam-12.  Our little dog was on my lap.  She jumped down.  At the commercial break, I decided to look for her.  I did not even have to get up.  She was standing on the third step of the stairs, right beside the rocker, staring at me.  “What does that look mean?” I asked.  Of course, she did not answer in any language that I know.

“Come back down,” I said to the little black and white creature.  She did.  Then, she leapt back up in my lap, climbed up my arm onto my shoulders and neck, and began licking my bald head.  I laughed and laughed.  Apparently our little dog is not terribly intimidated by the coronavirus.

Third story.

I don’t know if Progressive is really good insurance or not, but they most certainly make good commercials.  Take, for example, the bigfoot commercial.  Before I make any comment, you need to have a look at the commercial, if you are not familiar with it.  You may access it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeavqyDYQtQ.

My wife was very eager to show me this video.  It may have been because she thinks I’m rather full of myself, and always want to be the center of attention.  If this was her thought, she had the decency not to say so.

Or, of course, it may be because my name is Daryl.  And yes, I’m afraid my feet really are pretty big. I am not writing a screen play, but I am a writer.

Go ahead and laugh!  I dare you! In fact, I give you permission!

, , , , , , ,

“ON READING ON WRITING: SERIOUSLY FUNNY”

On January 6, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I am trying to learn to be a writer—or, at least, a better one.  So, I am doing two things: writing more and reading/listening to good writers more.

I am rereading Stephen King’s book On Writing.  I am enjoying it even more this time.

I am trying to read the what of King’s writing, but also the how of his writing.  How is he doing what he is doing with a particular word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, or story?

King uses wonderful metaphors in his stories.  In fact, he uses a metaphor for his stories of his early childhood.  He calls them “snapshots.”

Some of the snapshots are funny.  Some are scary.  Some are puzzling.  Some are all of those and more at the same time.

But he also annotates his snapshots.  His teenage babysitter when he was four used to fart in his face.  King drolly comments that this prepared him for literary critics.  Yes!

Everything is grist for the literary mill.  But you have to know how to mill it.  And that means grinding it out.

This involves, for me at least, a light touch with serious matters.  I want to write seriously helpful stuff, but I don’t want to be morbidly obese about it.

I have noticed that the authors I like to read and reread are the ones who invite me to laugh, but also to do some serious thinking about important realities: life, death, what is important, relationships, politics, work.

The Old and New Testaments also make serious observations with irony and humor.

Yes, I do realize that irony and humor are different things.  But, like sibling twins, they share at least some of the same dna.

Take Cain, for example.  The story about him is found in Genesis 4.  He kills his brother Abel.  When God asks Cain where his brother is, Cain responds with a statement and a question, “I don’t know.  Am I my brother’s keeper?”  I often hear people quote this saying, sometimes with approval.  I wonder if they realize that they are quoting the first murderer, according to the Bible.

As part of the LORD God’s punishment, Cain is told that he will be a vagabond, a wanderer (näd, in Genesis 4:12).  Yet the narrator who is telling the story says that Cain settled down in the Land of Wandering (nôd, Genesis 4:16).  How on earth do you “settle down” in “the Land of Wandering?”

Precisely!  The narrator wants us to see that, if we abuse or kill our brother, we will be exiled—even when we think we are settling down.  As I heard one preacher say many years ago concerning the Lord’s Prayer, “We cannot say ‘Our Father,’ unless we are also willing to say, ‘Our brother.’”

So, the writers I like—whether ancient or modern—have some serious things to say, but they say those things with humor.  That is the kind of writer I would like to be.

As has often been said, “Many a truth is uttered in jest.”

, , , , , , , ,
Follow on Feedly