Tuesday, December 15, 2009

LOL

LOL. Most of us know what that means now. Now, it is common place. Laugh out loud.
But when I first started seeing it in emails, I thought it stood for a swear word . I 'd go through the list in my brain (not a big one...the list, not my brain) yet without the F-word, I was stumped.

The first time I read it, it was in the emails of the least funny or laugh-filled people I knew. Quite honestly, dour people. So I would try to imagine what LOL could stand for based on them. Something about being Out of Luck always came to mind.
When I later asked my dour friend what it meant she said laugh out loud, I was flummoxed. She hardly finds anything funny. She has acknowledged she doesn't have much of a sense of humor. When she has laughed it is like a rusty sound that turns into a weak cough. Nothing you really want to hear "out loud."
But what I notice with many I know who use LOL in emails, it doesn't seem connected to what they're writing or saying. I read along, " And then my son gave me a book. LOL. " So I stop dead in the reading, and wonder how is that funny? What is the circumstance or nuance I am missing as to why that is a laugh out loud moment? Sometimes I get the weird visual of my dour friend or whomever and can't imagine her laughing out loud, hence LOL had to stand for Live On Lonely, Luck Out Lover, or something.

Do we bastardize meanings like laughing out loud, if we're not laughing out loud? Is it used to supposedly let the reader know you are kidding, or to soften an insult, like I love your hair LOL?

When was the last time you laughed out loud, really? I rarely do anymore, yet I am told I have a good sense of humor and make others LOL...in email anyway. Or so they say.

What if you were a stand up comedian, and when you said a joke, if the audience found it funny each person would hold up an LOL sign, yet wouldn't actually have the energy or will to laugh out loud in person? The oddest thing to me is someone telling me what I just said was really funny, yet they don't laugh. She just smiles, wags her finger at me and says, " That is very funny." I'm not sure you can intellectualize funny. Either it is something that makes you laugh out loud or it ain't.

What are we saving our laughs for? Spend them now. Spend them everyday. Laugh out loud, in person, in public, with friends, with servers at the restaurant, with little children.
Let's be laugh-aholics and never go for treatment.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Humo(u)r and Quirky

I want to encourage us all to laugh out loud more often, and feeling relaxed about it. And the challenge is if you are a humorous person, but only in person, not in print. I mean, has Robin Williams written a funny book, or do we need to see him for him to be funny? Hey is that like if a tree falls down in the forest does it make a sound if no one is there to hear? Hmmmmm. And truly, what difference does it make to know that or not to know that?


Okay, I can see this is going to be a column of questions and few answers. Oh grasshopper, when you can take this pebble from my hand...More gook from inside my brain. How those things spring up, and being with another when they do, who laughs. Who understands your humor or sense of play.

My humor is really a sense of playfulness. Teasing for me is a form of affection. It takes energy to tease, really. And I have to like you to have the energy to spend teasing. And then you laugh. I'm encouraged. More teasing. And more barriers come down, and connection gets made in order to have a conversation.

Humor helps with a lot of things. We relax. We figure someone isn't going to make us laugh, then rush in to steal our pocketbook. Oh boy, now I just gave you some ideas.

But if you're both laughing, you're liable to suggest going somewhere for a coffee and you'll both pull out your pocketbooks to pay. Now isn't that nice?


Someone said the other day, that part of my quirky view to an American is because I grew up in Canada. That Canadians view of the world is so different and living there I just thought it was how life was, rather than it was Canadian. Yet the longer I live in the United States and hug my quirkiness, I suppose there is truth to that.

In Canada there are tons of funny shows on TV, fun print, radio, people laugh more, humor is kind and funny. There isn't the mean streak to humor that is definitely signature American.


Humor can either unite people, or divide them. When I say quirky, I mean those fun, humorous moments that unite a group. The other type is mean. It is the “humor” of , I was just kidding, can't you take a joke? Or putting down or denigrating a person or group in an effort to elevate yourself . An us and them approach. There is no talent in that in my opinion.


There is power and responsibility in humor. Some people don't like being teased, not realizing or being able to discern the nuances. Humor is so close to truth, that is what makes it funny. And saying something funny, really delightfully funny, is about surprising the listener with something so true yet incongruous, one bursts out laughing.


I guess in this column I am talking of humor, which comes from my own quirky view. And missing what is quirky in this world, and wanting to bring it forward for us all. Like Russell who restores old 1955-57 chevy cars. Twenty years ago, he and some friends cut a 57 chevy in half and placed one half on the front of his long driveway, as a marker, so people would know where to turn. I have been driving by that half car for years, and each time it makes me smile. At first it looked like a whole car, then you rubberneck and realize, Heck that's half a car. A real car. To me that is quirky. Why do that? Maybe think about doing it, but to actually follow through and do it, that is quirky. Russell was one of my first interviews for my Quirky View series. And he is outspoken, loves his work, and has a good sense of fun. When I asked him to get in the trunk of his restored 1957 Chevy, he said Sure. No questions, just did it. What a hoot. Fritz on camera, Jim on sound, me interviewing, and Russell in the trunk, opening it with a bunch of fun show openers. I bent over laughing. Those are the moments and sense of play we all need more, and I am going after them for myself, and plan to share.


Tuesday, December 1, 2009

First Quirky Post

I miss funny. I miss funny television, funny print media, funny stories told amongst friends. We are SO serious, and so afraid to be funny with one another.
I miss being able to laugh at myself. I miss being able to laugh at others too, not to humiliate or shame, but because laughing at ourselves changes how we laugh. Often we are scared it is not politically correct to laugh at certain things. Many of us have lost that sense of fun and playfulness which really is about humor, laughter, relaxing, letting go.
Funny for me is not watching home videos on TV about brides tripping, or children falling. That isn't funny. Not to me.
When was the last time you were delighted and surprised in a good way by something someone said? And isn't' that when we laugh spontaneously? We are taken off guard, someone puts a word together in an odd context, or starts laughing because something you said made them think of something else, and the spark of funny happens.
I want funny back. Quirky View is part of that. I know I know. Nothing here I've written has been funny yet. See, I need practice. And I'm probably better on radio. :)
Quirky to me are those offbeat moments, or those weird juxtapositions of words, people and actions. As a kid it happened to me all the time. I would laugh hysterically because of visuals I connected, play on words, that kind of thing. Now I feel rusty and want my funny back.
Will you help me?
There was a time I was kicked out of yoga class for making people laugh. (Actually I've been kicked out of a lot of things for making others laugh, or laughing too loudly. Go figure.) Now there are special laughing yoga classes. So why was I kicked out when years later we seek it? And why is laughter segregated from much of our life, as though to laugh and enjoy makes you less credible or substantial? WRONG. Big fat wrong.
Funny people and laughers unite. Don't be afraid. Step up for your incisors to be seen as you throw your head back for a large guffaw. It is all in the funny bone.
When did we last laugh out loud and get a belly ache? Well maybe you don't want that intensity all the time, but sometimes we do need that. Beyond enjoyment, we need deep, body shaking, eye crying belly laughs. One Quirky bite at a time. So here goes...