I have mood poisoning. Must be something I hate.

Marilyn Manson - who'd have thought I'd ever be quoting from him, but a good quote it is. Here's a jolly pic to brighten up your Monday:

I do NOT have mood poisoning, by the way. I was just thinking about puns and how much I adore them.

“You can lead a horticulture, but you cannot make her think,”said Dorothy Parker, just to confirm it.

I was brought up on puns. So much cheaper than baby food.

The delicious fare presented to me in my childhood was I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again and it still has me laughing in its current manifestation, impish son of ISIRTA - I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

That's quite amazing, when you think about it - from 1967, when it was first broadcast, to today. Gulp - that's forty six years. FORTY SIX YEARS. There's longevity for you.

I wonder if it's a particularly British form of humour? I wonder if it's the type of humour that only people of my sort of age group enjoy?

Here's what had me giggling yesterday, when picking blackcurrants - generally the most tedious of jobs. The team was putting forward suggestions for less successful charities:

Brown Nose Day, Kelp For Heroes, The Salivation Army, Colonic Relief...and my two favourites:

Children in Tweed

and

Guide Dogs For The Blonde

Is it just me?

Too lively a sense of humour frequently leads to laxity of principle.

A misquote via Georgette Heyer - good grief, I never in a million years thought I might quote from Georgette Heyer. And how unfairly judgemental that is since I've never once read anything by her. I just Think Things about historical romances.

Get in there! RIP THAT BODICE!!

At the moment, I'm writing a short screenplay - The Last Assassin. It's a comedy. That's to say, I've written it as a comedy. And I think it's achingly funny.

But then, I would, wouldn't I?

The test will come when other people read it, above all, the guy who's commissioned it...

We shall see.

But honestly, I can't begin to tell you how funny it is...such a lively sense of humour in evidence and definitely lax principles...

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing.

 The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

Good ole, Mark Twain. Except he can't spell humour.

 

That's an example of my sense of humour.. Well, someone else's -  that makes me, at the very least, smile.

I quite often write material that's meant to be funny and then it's reviewed by lots of people, many of them Americans. For the most part they fail to find it even slightly amusing. It could be that I'm rubbish at writing comedy. I accept that. Or is it that my (British) sense of humour simply doesn't cross the pond?

Then I got to thinking about all the American humour that I love to bits.

So - I love Calvin and Hobbes...

Garfield...

Dilbert...

I would put in some Gary Larson here but he has Very Large And Scary Lawyers who don't seem to realise that any publicity is GOOD publicity...

Hmmm, perhaps it's just me and my inability to write humour...

A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing.

"...Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds."

I had to correct the spelling in this quotation. Someone forgot to put the second u in humour...

(You'd think that with a brain as big as this, William James would at least be able to SPELL!)

I'm not sure if I even understand what he said, let alone agree with it. 

Here are some things I find funny:

(Thanks Heather O'Connell)

And...

 

And I like one-liners:

Chris Addison: "A skeleton walks into a pub and says, ‘I’ll have a pint of beer and a mop."

Milton Jones: “When my grandfather became ill, my grandmother greased his back. After that, he went downhill very quickly.”

And just so you don't think I  like only British humour - here's a Canadian:

 Stewart Francis: "My therapist says I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We'll see about that."

And here's an American:
Steven Wright: "Cross-country skiing is great if you live in a small country."

So, what have all these in common? Hmmmm...they don't hurt anyone, they're silly,  lateral-thinking plays on words and conjure up ridiculous images?

Common sense dancing, though?

I don't think so - but it's a lovely thought.

I think there should be something in science called the “reindeer effect.”

"I don’t know what it would be, but I think it’d be good to hear someone say, “Gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect."

Day 2 Advent Calendar image - a cute reindeer - hence the quotation, which makes me smile BUT...

I have to find out two things here: 


1. Who is Jack Handey?
2. What on earth was he talking about?


Number 1 - easy - "Jack Handey (born 25 February 1949) is an American humorist" (and another person I haven't heard of...until now)

Number 2? Hmmmm - APPARENTLY 'the reindeer effect' refers to something that cannot properly be explained. Now, that is clever! I'm sure there must be a term for...errrm, terms like that. Something akin to a truism, something akin to tautology? Oh, I give up.

The reindeer effect, which cannot itself properly be explained, refers to something that cannot properly be explained...

It was used in an American study about political leanings correlating to one's sense of humour. (HUMOUR, right? As opposed to humor.)

The hypothesis was that this sort of nonsense humour (along with “Far Side” cartoons and Monty Python sketches) should appeal more to liberals because of their “openness to ideas” and their tendency to “seek new experiences.” Liberals, it was proposed, should  be able to enjoy the ambiguity and absurdity of the reindeer effect, even though the punch line’s incongruity isn’t neatly resolved. Whereas conservatives...

Conservatives, the study concluded, enjoyed the reindeer effect joke more than liberals. (Interestingly, most social scientists - the people who put together this study - are liberals)

That's that theory out of the window then. Their justification, conclusion, call it what you will:

“Conservatives tend to be happier than liberals in general,” said Dr. Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario. “A conservative outlook rationalizes social inequality, accepting the world as it is, and making it less of a threat to one’s well-being, whereas a liberal outlook leads to dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and a sense that things need to change before one can be really happy.”

and

"Maybe the stereotype of the dour, rigid conservative has more to do with social scientists’ groupthink and wariness of outsiders..."

Well, I think that what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect.