I've always thought I had a sense of humour worth laughing at/with. Runs in the family, you know. (Lodderish, anyway) And it's true: I like (and need) to work at thinking up even slightly corny jokes...after which I wait in agony until someone with a better sense of humourous reality either tells me to shut up or (hooray!) acknowledges that I pass my self-imposed social acceptability test. Ridiculous, I know, that I'd set such store on how well my stupid corny jokes are received...but sometimes that's the only language that's spoken around here. And it's super frustrating to be misunderstood simply because you don't speak the language very well...
Humour is a serious business; it needs to be treated in the right way in order for it to be helpful in awkward situations, or useful in making friends, or even indispensable in keeping friends. There's this fear of awkward silences (Some silences are not awkward, I KNOW. But you can't deny that some are.) which makes me work harder at this humour. There's this fear of being a boring wallflowerish person(by which I mean someone who nobody wants to talk to because their personality is quite blah...with humour, they can be a lot more interesting!), or *gasp* a ridiculously insecure nervous wreck...
It's enough to take the humour out of any situation for me, while it's also frustrating when others get it so easily and make jokes about me not getting it. It wouldn't be so serious if I had some company, I think...
Unfortunately, I lose any sense of humour when tired/stressed/angry/frustrated/lost/irritated/sad/sore/lonely/slow/cantakerous/introverted/peopled out/grouchy/being teased about a 'thorn in my flesh'/really out of touch with reality/missing God. Maybe I really should be living in a hole at these times---I tend to hurt people around me when I'm like this. And I'd much rather be more pleasant...
I'd really really like to be able to let go and laugh at myself with none of these fears or worries...but I seriously need to learn to live/laugh/love first; I seriously need to see God's humour with a real appreciation rather than with a cynical observation.
On another note: What should I do with myself next year?
Humour is a serious business; it needs to be treated in the right way in order for it to be helpful in awkward situations, or useful in making friends, or even indispensable in keeping friends. There's this fear of awkward silences (Some silences are not awkward, I KNOW. But you can't deny that some are.) which makes me work harder at this humour. There's this fear of being a boring wallflowerish person(by which I mean someone who nobody wants to talk to because their personality is quite blah...with humour, they can be a lot more interesting!), or *gasp* a ridiculously insecure nervous wreck...
It's enough to take the humour out of any situation for me, while it's also frustrating when others get it so easily and make jokes about me not getting it. It wouldn't be so serious if I had some company, I think...
Unfortunately, I lose any sense of humour when tired/stressed/angry/frustrated/lost/irritated/sad/sore/lonely/slow/cantakerous/introverted/peopled out/grouchy/being teased about a 'thorn in my flesh'/really out of touch with reality/missing God. Maybe I really should be living in a hole at these times---I tend to hurt people around me when I'm like this. And I'd much rather be more pleasant...
I'd really really like to be able to let go and laugh at myself with none of these fears or worries...but I seriously need to learn to live/laugh/love first; I seriously need to see God's humour with a real appreciation rather than with a cynical observation.
On another note: What should I do with myself next year?
4 comments:
I love you Justine. Humor and all. Can we have lots of fun today? And laugh a lot? And talk about God maybe? And hang out?? PLEASE?
Justine, I love you. Really a lot.
Next year you should definitely come and find me and we'll run away to Scotland...and do our other dates that have been planned for ages. haha
Hey Justine!
I definitely feel the same way as you do about your family - a sense of humour can be and has been my best friend as I'm trying to get to know your family better. But yeah, jokes can go too far and get hit nerves, often. If that happens with me, please just tell me, and we can work on a more encouraging sense of humour between us.
Here's a cool tip to learn a style of humour that one of my friends at school has mastered.
First, think about the Lord of the Rings movie, the first one, where Bilbo and Gandalf are sitting on the front step smoking pipes. And Bilbo blows a smoke ring, and Gandalf blows a smoke-ship through the smoke ring. Now just picture in your head the way Gandalfs face looks when he's blowing out the smoke - his cheeks are puffed out etc. and he just looks like a bloke, basically. This is the kind of motion you want to be able to do with your own face, except at a much faster speed - faster because you don't want people to know what you like like when you make this face. So, as you do this, blow some air out of your mouth, past your vocal cords, and begin to make a sound, of any letter in the alphabet you chose. Now here is the tricky part. Now that you have made a sound, you have everyone's attention, but you have no idea how to make this situation into a joke. Start thinking, and making more random consonant and vowel sounds with your vocal cords, and keep trying to make these sounds sound somewhat like words. Soon, you will have said a word or two that have absolutely nothing to do with what was just said. Now is when the magic happens. As a defense mechanism, your brain will come up with a very lame joke to mask and excuse the sounds you've already emitted. At first, your brain's defense of your sense of humour will be quite weak, but as you practice, (Don't practice on your family) you will find that your mind becomes faster and more adept at creating humour out of an attempt to save face.
If you can master this sense of humour, people will pee themselves laughing at what you have said. But sometimes the jokes will be so lame that people will punch you in the arm. But don't worry about that. I'm trying my best to learn this system of humour-creating, and it's hard, but rewarding.
Yeah, basically, I think you're hilarious.
Love, Ben
haha Ben! Funny. See you tomorrow! AND Carol-Lee! :) Nadine, see you SOON on a date we need to set still. :)
<3
Post a Comment