Timing is key in all things comedic. The avid movie goer & anyone in theatre understands that. So yes, this is an attempt to justify my laughing to tears as a little girl almost broker her head. (Disclaimer: I was, underneath everything, extremely concerned for her well-being.) It was funny because you don't see it coming & it is innocently unplanned that you can't help but marvel at it's humor.
Interestingly enough, not everyone has the same sense of humor or susceptibility to it, as I prefer to say. Many, many people wouldn't have so much as broken a smile as that little girl face-planted. It isn't a conscious thought for them NOT to laugh just like it's not a conscious thought for me TO laugh.
Likewise, Will Farrel is the epitome of funny for many people (mostly guys, I've noticed) but for me - he's predictable & unoriginal. He relies on stupidity for every joke he makes. And once you've seen him once you, you've seen all the characters he's every played. I laugh at him, yes. But, it's not my favorite shtick.
Vince Vaughn is more entertaining to me. Even though he is also guilty of blending from character to character - his sarcasm & the tone of his voice as well as his line delivery comes together to create something hilarious! Farrel doesn't have that for me.
Which show how interesting evaluating or categorizing humor can be. Its a ironically personal emotion. Yet, a universally shared one as well. Well, I guess that describes all emotions but let me explain myself better.
Unlike sadness or sympathy, you don't necessarily need to have experienced something to find it funny. For instance, humor is more easily recognizable & appreciated than jealousy or even fear. Jealousy or fear stem from something else. They are secondary emotions arrived at only AFTER something has initiated a chain of events to bring a person to the ultimate emotive decision:scared or envious. Humor, on the other hand, is pure. You hear or perhaps see stimulation & you laugh. One step process. No loop-holes, no combating it. You just accept whatever it is that has made you laugh has worthy of exciting such a positive & enjoyable emotional response. There is no other solution than to giggle, smirk, chuckle or even cackle.
I also think humor is the hardest emotional response to stifle. You can usually keep anger in check. Jealousy gets tiring after long. Sadness eventually gives way.... but humor... humor happily ekes its way into everyday life time & time again. The re-telling of stories often excites the same humor, re-lived. That's the best. But exploring what once made you sad, angry -even happy- starts to fad with time. You start to feel the original emotion less & less. Often this is not the case with humor. I cherish that... and nothing disappoints me more than the familiar "if you had only been there! it won't be as funny now that I'm retelling it..."
Much like my past blogs, I'm really going no where with this. I contemplated making up a Bud Light "Real Men of Genius" for laughing but I'm truly not that creative. Or patient. The farthest I got was an imaginary list that included public farting, wedgies, people tripping & epic flirting fails. Any poets out there?
So, I guess I'll end with a quote from one of the greatest & most original comedians of all time, Charlie Chaplin. "A day without laughter is a day wasted." I encourage you to take this to heart.
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