In today’s post to his blog, Jack’s Winning Words, Pastor Freed used this Cloris Leachman quote – “When something is truly funny, it’s funny all the time.”
When something is funny, we think of laughter and one is reminded of the quote – “Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, but cry and you cry alone.”
A person’s sense of humor is as unique as their fingerprints. Different things tickle the funny bone of each individual. I think that Cloris was trying to point out that truly funny things are not only funny to us all of the time, but that they are funny to all of us. There are those who find the misfortunes of others to be humorous. That is actually the humor behind the prat fall, which has been a staple of humor routines forever.
Who doesn’t watch America’s Funniest Videos without knowing that somewhere in the collection of videos for that show someone on the night’s show is going to taka tumble that we will think is funny. But, not everyone laughs at that misfortune. Some are concerned for the safety and health of the person taking the fall. The show usually assures us that the person was OK after the tumble.
I think that example may serve to illustrate a point that I believe Leachman was trying to make. Something is truly funny if we can laugh with someone and not at someone.
I remember in some of the comedy routines that he would do on his show that Red Skelton would find the routine he was doing to be so funny that he would start laughing himself. The same thing often happened on the Carol Burnett show when both Carole and Harvey Korman would find something that Tim Conway was doing to be so funny that they could not keep themselves from laughing. We could all laugh along with them and those sketches.
What makes you laugh? Do you ever feel guilty later about laughing at someone instead of with them? Do you find that incident funny after you’ve had time to think about it? Remember that laughing at the misfortune of others just means that in the end, the last laugh is on you. And that’s not funny.
Try laughing with the world and you won’t end up crying all alone later.
Posted by Norm Werner 
can no longer look at what is happening and laugh. Sometimes things in life can seem so bad that they become absurd. It’s at those moments when the ability to look at the situation and just have to laugh at the absurdity of it all that can get you through it.
and not get so serious about it that we lose the ability to laugh at it and at ourselves. My first reaction to having done something stupid is usually to be mad at myself, but that lasts only a moment until I see the humor in the dumb thing that I just did. Then I step back, have a good laugh and move on with life. It helps immensely sometimes to be able to see the humor in the absurdity of life and in our own reactions to things that are happening.
funny face. Stick out your tongue. Scrunch up your face. Do whatever it is you need to do to make yourself laugh at what you see. Break the grip of seriousness on you the first thing in the morning and see if that doesn’t make your whole day better. Laugh at yourself first and then find the humor in whatever life throws you way during the day. Life cannot defeat you if you can still laugh at it.
to me) thought that just crossed my mind.
There are things in life that make us smile, like seeing a cartoon of Snoopy dancing or even the original smiley-face emoji. We also need things that make us laugh. I remember many routines on the old Carol Burnet show that were so funny that even the cast was laughing while they tried to perform the routine. Tim Conway doing his little old man shuffle inevitably broke up Harvey Corman in those routines. My wife loves to watch reruns of the show Everybody Loves Raymond, because they make her laugh.
I’ve used a prime example of the impact of our “at rest” faces in posts a few times – ex-Speaker of the House John Boehner. Most of the time, when you saw Boehner on TV in the background at State of the Union Speeches or in photos taken at the capitol he looked unhappy, or in discomfort – he looked dour. If you Google his name there are tons of pictures that pop up; but, only a few show a smiling John Boehner. He looks like a much more pleasant fellow in those smiling photos.
I’m sure that there are scientific explanations about the endorphins that are released in the body by laughter; but those fail to take into account the release of the icy grip of hate, anger, remorse, fear or sadness from our hearts during those moments of laughter.
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