it's funny

  We all have our own unique sense of humor; well most people have a sense a humor anyway. I'd suggest that sense of humor is influenced heavily by society. Each generation does appear to enjoy a different sense of what is humorous. I also think that it is tied to your individual sense of what is acceptable behaviors in public, you know what I mean? Is a quick wit required to enjoy humor? In many cases I believe that it is, and that is why some jokes just fly past others. In some cases, it is just a lack of awareness of current events or sensibilities. And then there is the comedy that relies upon the shock value. It is often the type of comedy I do not find amusing at all. 

 I wonder what the current generation finds funny. It appears to me they are sorely lacking in that area. All this empathetic attitude and sense of self-importance, and worth. So concerned with social ills and personal happiness and fulfillment. Nothing is funny to them. Everything is offensive, except the most offensive of things. Those sorts of things are touted as "freedom of expression" and "living my best life" and if you don't agree you are not being inclusive. Well, I do try to exclude what I feel is offensive to others as a matter of course. Sometimes it is those very things that I attempt to keep hidden from others, things that I consider private. Guilty pleasures they are sometimes called. At other times they could be viewed as perversions. We aren't supposed to admit to that or call others out on that. That's all a part of this new inclusiveness. 

 It has been said that the ability to laugh at yourself is the most important thing to your own mental wellbeing. I understand that but have to say, I enjoy a good laugh at someone else's expense. Some folks are just funny without even trying. And to those folks I find silly or ridiculous I often laugh. It is the only reaction I have to that because I have already dismissed them. I figure they aren't being serious. Then they get angry because I do laugh. Now I have to admit I often find myself quite amusing, I crack myself up at times. Others don't always think so however and take me seriously. Something I have learned is that if you have to explain the joke, it isn't funny. That being established when I don't get the joke, I question your intelligence. Funny how that works. Well, it keeps me laughing anyway. Life is too short to take too seriously. 

 I enjoy humor that makes you think. Nervous laughter is just plain uncomfortable to me. You know, when you are in a crowd of people and feel like you just laugh because others are. It's a sort of social pressure. You feel like you have to. All humor is situational to me. There is a time and place. And for me, a lot of it is way past its' time, was funny twenty-five years ago or more, but I've outgrown that. Humor is sometimes like tattoos, cool at the time you get them, not so, many years later. But I guess that is what Dad jokes are about. I'm telling grandpa jokes! Jokes that rely on a sense of history, on past lessons and knowledge learned through living. 

 Yeah, a lot of the things I used to believe and support I can laugh at today. It was pretty funny when you think about it. Maybe these kids today will spend their senior years just laughing and laughing. Maybe they will realize, eventually, just how silly they acted. We pitched tents on campus and protested in support of a terrorist organization because we didn't support terrorism! We even tore up our diplomas, boycotted our own commencement exercises and complained that our degree in gender studies didn't make us rich! We advocated for socialism! We believed it was our constitutional right to rewrite the constitution so it couldn't be rewritten in the future.

 The longer I live the funnier things get. I can look back at those moments that I felt were earth shattering, moments of dire circumstances, and see how foolish they were. There wasn't any real need to be so concerned. I should have listened when I was told, do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself. That has proven to be the long and short of it. It is only in the way you respond to today, that influences tomorrow. Live in the moment, enjoy the moment, and realize it isn't all that serious. It's pretty funny at times.