A day without laughter is a day wasted.
-Charlie Chaplin
Q: Why was the baby ant so confused?
A: Because all of his uncles were ants.
So this isn’t exactly side-splitting humor. Laughter is the best medicine though. You know that and you have heard that often. Laughter certainly can enhance your day and can most definitely make you a healthier person.
Laughter can help you sleep better. It can ease your anxiety and bolster your immune system. It can even strengthen your muscles and tighten your abdominals. Laughter can also keep you around on this earth a lot longer. Funny guys like George Burns and Bob Hope lived long enough to kiss the century mark. There’s something about that joke-infused material.
There are plenty of amusing little things you can do to get you laughing. You can grab the comic section of the daily newspaper and see what Funky Winkerbean or the Lockhorns are up to today. That seems like plenty more fun than checking which of your high school classmates made column two of the obituaries.
Go see a stand-up comedian or two. Find the local comedy club and get there early so you can have that front row seat where the comic can poke fun at you. Make certain you wear some hideous outfit that can add fodder to the comedian’s arsenal. Will Rogers once said, “Everything’s funny as long as it’s happening to someone else.” It’s OK to be that someone else. Just don’t turn into that tough guy who gets angry at the comic for making insulting remarks at you. Remember, you’re there to laugh….even if it is at yourself.
Make it a Netflix night. John Candy, the Marx Brothers and Tina Fey make nice humorous additions to your Saturday nights. One of my favorite comedies is Little Miss Sunshine. Ye olde schoolmarms won’t find much humor in the profanity-laced language of Alan Arkin’s character in this movie. It made me laugh though. Find your favorite flick and let out some gregarious guffaws!
Clean the house, prepare the hors d’oeuvres, and get ready for game night! A game of charades should get the laughs rolling. There’s nothing more hysterical than watching your friend act out the title words to some movie after he’s quaffed several gin and tonics. After a couple of hours of your best Marcel Marceau routines, dust off Twister and prove the inverse relationship between balance and alcohol intake. This comedy of errors nightcap should fill you with plenty of laughter.
There are always the memories of those youthful indiscretions that can get you a chuckle or two. Call up the old college pals and relive the time when you jumped off the Alpha Beta Chi fraternity house on a dare. It’s crazy how funny a broken arm, a concussion, and two broken teeth can seem after 20 years of time has gone by. Oh, what was I thinking anyway!
I love to laugh and so should you. Turn that frown upside down. Your health and happiness is depending on you and you’ve got some funny business to attend to. Knock, Knock. Who’s there? Take it from here my friend.
This montage of mirth is brought to you by that guy with original copies. That oxymoronic guy is Ron Blake and he can be found clearly misunderstood at rblake5551@hotmail.com.
