Funny Thing About Humor!

Practical jokes are humorous to some people!

I remember when, on the 4th of July in my home town, it was a custom for the men to grow a beard, and there was a contest for the best beard. One fellow had grown a beautiful red beard and some of his “friends” caught him sound asleep and shaved one side of the beard and mustache off! You know they thought that was very funny.

Also knew of a fellow who planted turnip seeds in his friends newly seeded lawn. Pretty funny, huh? Probably not, if you are on the receiving end of that kind of humor!

I don’t like ethnic jokes! Remember when (or maybe you don’t) little moron jokes were all the rage, and then they became Polish jokes. I am not fond of jokes that belittle someone.

I get my biggest laughs, sometimes, from the news. For instance, one day it was reported that a boat on the river was overturned when all the passengers rushed to one side to view a nude beach! I thought that was pretty funny. I still get a laugh out of that when I think about it.

Or the time when we read in the paper about a man who had been found, in bed, dead, with 5 bullet holes! (That is not the funny part!) A week later there was a follow up to the story. It had been ruled a “suicide“! Wow, I have heard of some really bad shots before! But nothing like this!

Some cartoons are very funny. My daughter loves the cartoon showing a snail riding on the back of a turtle yelling “Wheeeee!” And recently I saw one called the first “Senior Moment!” Two dinosaurs sitting on a small island, Noah’s Ark was sailing off in the distance and one of the dinosaurs said “Oh Darn, was that today?”

Naturally you can not talk about humor without thinking of some very funny commercials! Right now, my favorite is the rattlesnake with a baby’s rattle attached to it’s tail. He approaches a rabbit, and when the rabbit catches sight of the rattle he falls over laughing! The Rattler with a look of embarrassment slowly retreats and hides his face. I have seen that so many times and still laugh at it.

I love what I call “O Henry’ type jokes. Typical one is about the timid soul who had gone Lion Hunting for the first time. He was telling a fellow hunter about it and the conversation went like this: “I was walking along in the jungle and it was getting dark, suddenly a lion jumped up in front of me and went ‘ROAR’. You know what? I just messed my britches!” His friend patted him on the shoulder and said he should not feel too bad. “That was a very scary moment and I am sure others were affected the same way.” The timid soul said, “No, I mean just now, when I went “ROAR”!

Now, with the Internet, I receive a lot of fwds. from my cousins in California and from friends. Usually very funny stuff. This week I got a list of interest to the elder citizens! This one I decided was the funniest of all. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night!

Hair Today, and Gone Tomorrow!

Fads come and go and normally I don’t mind, knowing they usually don’t last long. I remember some fads from my youth. Modes of the day, a style or fashion that is perhaps one generation’s rebellion against a tiresome tradition of the previous generation, or just the desire for something new! In fashions, it is a must, for it generates a whole new spending spree and is necessary to keep the clothing business flourishing! Some style changes, though, can damage an industry. Remember when, during the Kennedy years, men stopped wearing hats? That really did put a lot of hat manufacturers out of business. 

 

And of course, getting to the point of today’s Blog, hair! The changes that took place in the Barbershop business when men (boys) stopped getting haircuts. Oh I well remember the uproar by many parents and even most schools, when boys began to let their hair grow long.  I, for one, did not think that it was worth worrying about, and I thought it was nice to be rid of the “flat top” and peeled onion look that had been a popular earlier for youngsters.

 

Now to my point:  I have nothing against facial hair on men! In fact, my husband had a beard. It was a beautiful white one, and he kept it neatly trimmed except when he let it grow out a bit in order to play “Santa Claus” for the children of friends and relatives at Christmas. I have always loved to see men wearing a beard. Even like the “Fu Manchu” or “La Souvarov” or “Van Dyke” on some men! 

 

Currently, though, I am more than a little put off by what is going on with men regarding facial hair! I am referring to the quarter-inch growth that a good many men consider to be good looking. This is one fad that I will happily see go by the wayside! To me, it simply looks like they were too lazy to shave! It looks careless, and inconsiderate of the people they are in contact with daily!

 

In my way of thinking, “If you are going to grow a beard, for heavens sake, grow a BEARD!”

Otherwise, to me, the style ranks right up there with not brushing your teeth! Or wearing dirty clothes!

“One for the Road”

I was chosen for jury duty once, regarding a man who was fighting his 5th DUI charge, and his lawyer got his case thrown out on a technicality. I wanted to jump up and ask him how his lawyer was going to deal with his murder charge after he "kills" someone while driving drunk! 

 

I think it is possible that most people who drink have probably driven while drunk, or “tipsy”!

I have been a passenger, several times, when the driver had “had a few too many“ and fortunately we did not have an accident! And we were not even stopped by a patrolman. I dare say, most of the people I know, have been in a similar situation sometime in their life. 

 

However, we are all very aware that rarely a week goes by without the news reporting of one or more deaths on our highways and drinking was involved. (“That only happens to other people!”) Right? Seems we never consider it could happen to us. Never consider reputations, or jobs, or worst case, lives could be lost!

I really do believe the reason we do not punish DUI more severely is because……….

Drunk driving is so much more socially acceptable than getting drunk and waving a loaded gun around and firing it at random!