Make Them Laugh

I envy my brother because he has perfect comic timing. He remembers jokes he learned in high school. I'm great as an audience member because I am very empathetic but I can't tell a joke for the life of me. I'm just not wired for it.

At family gatherings he's cracking us up and I can't even remember the punch line a few minutes later because the words and the order get all jumbled in my mind. If I do deliver the joke in right order then I miss the timing and there's no pizazz. Life is just not fair sometimes!

What I lack in the joke department I make up for in imagination because I think like Gary Larson. Alas, I still mourn the loss of The Far Side, don't you?

I'm very visual so if it looks funny than it is funny to me... I still laugh when I watch I Love Lucy, Perfect Strangers, Laverne & Shirley or Home Improvement.

Now my sense of humor has caused me some embarrassing moments because slapstick is funny even if someone gets hurt and that someone is me. I've done my usual trip, flip (wipe out on water skies and ripped my shorts) and hard landings. Besides a few bruises the only thing that really smarts is my pride and the swift kick to my ego.

The problem with me is that the lines don't get embedded in my memory...the pictures do. Someone can bring a box of candy to the office and tempt me with sweet confections and I start laughing. Co-workers back off thinking I've lost my mind but at that moment I can picture Lucy and Ethel stuffing bonbons in their cheeks and down their blouses.

See how dangerous it can be to be me? If I had been born two hundred years ago I would have been put in a padded cell but since I was working and living in San Francisco at the time...I was pretty normal, considering.