Everything Is Funny

Today, I was told something that brought back a host of memories from when I was first learning the wonders of humor. "Your joke wasn't funny" was the sentence which brought back what my brother would tell me all those years back, "You aren't funny."

My very first memory doesn't come with a face or a picture. I simply remember hearing someone laugh at something I said, and I discovered the feeling of inspiring laughter in a person. After I felt that, I aspired to make people laugh more, and began learning the art of humor.

My siblings always told me I wasn't funny. That's why, when I may have tried to have sibling bonding time, I never tried, 'cause I didn't trust them or their judgement. When bigger issues came up, I was never able to trust them because they gave me the advice to give up on humor.

That may seem a bit far, but I love humor. I don't know how to interact with the world without sarcasm. That's why I would practice being funny away from my family, at school and church, and I kept quiet at home and resented my brothers for their opinion on humor.

But if there's one thing I've learned about myself, it's that if I'm told I'm not something or cannot be something, I'm likely to decide that I'm perfectly capable of such. Katie Williams once told me (and apologized when I told her the story), "Some people just aren't meant to sing" in reference to my own abilities.

Anyway, the simple "Your joke wasn't funny" rekindled a world of rejection from my brothers and my own philosophy I had developed as a result. Everything is funny. The usual problem with humor is the recipient, not the joke. Somewhere, in some context, everything is funny. Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, has said something similar in saying that everything has the potential to be funny. Everything.