Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Laughter the best medicine

Humour.

Or yuma, as my french colleagues would say :-)

Don't you just love it :-)
It is what keeps us all sane.

Here is my little ode to humour, the saviour of mankind.

I take this opportunity also to apologise for depressing everyone with my run of misery-inducing posts lately. Separation and divorce are not the easiest topics to deal with at the best of times, and certainly not in the run up to Christmas.

I hope this present post lightens up the atmosphere a bit round here, in this supposedly joyful Advent-tide.

Without further ado, let's have a laugh....British style!

Yes, the Brits are well-known for their sense of humour :-)
This is what I love most about being British.
We are known to laugh, even in the face of adversity. Sometimes, our humour is unacceptably irreverent. But it is usually innocent fun.

Speaking of innocent fun, I think we have all learned this week that sometimes even 'innocent' fun can be very unfunny.
When it is done at the expense of others.
In the case I refer to, the intended target turned out  not to be the eventual victim.
Funny is only truly funny if no-one gets hurt.


When I was very young (under ten), I used to read Readers Digest a lot. Both my parents were avid fans, and I kind of inherited this 'fandom'. There was a section, 'Laughter the best medicine', which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and it rapidly became the only section I would read :-)


Not to get all scientific on you, but laughter is indeed a booster of health and well-being, due to its ability to induce the release of various hormones and neurotransmitters, which contribute to general health, much like exercise produces endorphine (pain-relieving and general 'feel-good') substances.

I believe that a permanent loss of humour is a dangerous thing. It could be a one-way ticket to the abyss.



Here are a few things that make me laugh.
What are yours?
Let's share! And have a jolly good laugh in the process :-)



1. Anyone with a french accent

This has to be my number one, given where I live!
Now, some say I have developed a french accent too, but since I don't perceive it myself, it doesn't count :-)
There are many different accents in Switzerland, since it is a multi-lingual country.
But none makes me laugh more than the french one.

Know what I mean? That heavy, difficult to understand french accent that Agatha Christie's Poirot (Belgian) is known for and which is parodied in the popular British comedy 'Allo allo'. Where you wish they would speak French rather than English because you know you will understand them better :-)




Sometimes it could be described as 'sexy' depending on who is speaking (cough Thierry Henry, cough!) but it is still funny.

It is not just the accent either. Sometines it is just the idioms involved.
One of my bosses has a heavy french accent.
And for some reason he refuses to use the word 'very' when he speaks English. So when I am being chastised (erm, which is often, lol), I often hear 'bad bad bad' rather than 'very bad'.
Strangely enough, when I am being chastised in french, he uses the word très. I don't get it.


2. Offended cats
Now, let's be clear. To you Manosphere chaps, let it be known that I don't own a cat :-)
At least not yet :-)

How did this come to happen anyway, that a woman with multiple cats in old age became such a symbol of derision in The Manosphere?
May I digress for a minute here?
Thanks!

I was reading with great interest the life story of Patrick Moore who died recently at age 89. As an astronomer, he was my childhood hero (my handle is 'Spacetraveller' for a reason!).
I was surprised and saddened by the reason for his lifelong bacherlorhood. His one and only love was brutally taken away from him during the war.
And (unusually for a man, I think), he had cats...I always associate men with dogs for some reason...


Anyhow, has anyone come across a cat who is offended?
I have offended more than one cat in my lifetime, it seems. Friends' and relatives' cats.
Let me tell you that a cat who is offended by something you have done can be very...belligerent.
They give you a look which is almost like this. but not quite:






And then you get the head flick. And the turning away and walking off from you, sulking.
It's absolutely hilarious!
And cats can hold a grudge for days.
It's like they have PMT or something :-)
I can relate, lol.


3. Men!
Hahahahahha!
Men do make me laugh. In a good way.
There is a reason I adore our resident funnyman, Metak.
And I think it is the same reason Danny our Maestro Game coach is such a success when it comes to the ladeeez.
It boils down to their humour.

I think it is fair to say that women like to laugh. Hence many women state that they like a man who can make them laugh.
Of course men like to laugh too. But I think they like it better if they provide a laugh. Gentlemen, am I right here, or off the mark?

To this end, I think, in general, men make better comedians than women. (Wait, do I only think this because I am a woman?)
However, there are many exceptions to this rule. Some very funny comedians are women, of course. I think Dawn French, Joanna Lumley and Jo Brand are three good (British) examples. I am sure others could name a few more. I find Joan Rivers quite funny myself. Anyone agree?

On Stingray' blog somewhere I once replied to a Bulgarian woman who stated that she found the young PUAs in her town highly amusing. I indicated to her that I found all (or at least most) men to be amusing.
A man replied to me that he found women amusing too!
I thought that was so nice to hear :-)

Is this a general sentiment among men?
Now, perhaps to a lot of Manosphere men, this may be far from the truth in our current clime. But what about the other (shall we say....um...'Manosphere-neutral') men here?
Do women make you laugh? In a good way or not?


4. Very old ladies
This is a peculiar one for me, and I am not sure how to explain it.

Wizened old ladies really amuse me. Again in a good way. I am not sure if it is the way they seem to dismiss or ignore social norms and etiquette, or if it is the fact that they look almost like 'little girls' again because they are reduced in size in their old age...I really don't know. I only report their effect on me.

I once popped into a church for Mass in a town I happened to be passing through and in which I knew no-one.
The church was by no means full.
And yet, an old lady (she was at least 80) came and sat so close to me that had she sat any closer, it would have been illegal. There was plenty of space on the pew! Any other person would have given me my due of at least 10 cm of 'space'. Not this lady.
The whole episode cracked me up, and I couldn't concentrate on the Mass.
Furthermore, everyone around us noticed this breech of personal space too, and I could hear the ensuing sniggers.

Why oh why do I always attract such people at Mass?


5. Little boys

The film 'Jerry Maguire' was a 'chick magnet'. Yes, true.
But don't you ever believe it was because of Tom Cruise or his 'You complete me' line.
No!

This is the reason women all over the world were falling over themselves to get to a cinema:

 
 
:-)

Is it the relatively large head or the spiky hair?
Dunno.




 And this is him today by the way :-)








I find little boys very entertaining indeed.
All children I know, or even don't know, irrespective of gender, somehow seem to Game me, which is a slight source of worry for me, because I feel I may not succeed in establishing the right kind of authority as a parent one day. But some people on that thread reassured me that I have nothing to worry about - thank you for that assurance! :-)

For now though, I am mercilessly gamed by little boys in this age-group. But they also make me laugh with their antics.
Whether it is showing me their, um 'friends' as these two brothers did, or teaching me how to work an i-phone, these little chaps are certainly a law unto themselves, aren't they?
JV, I am sure you may have one or two stories to share on this front!

The son of a friend of mine, when he was around 3 or 4, suddenly grasped the concept of money and 'value', and promptly exerted his new-found knowledge on Auntie Spacetraveller in a way only little boys can.
Out of the blue one day, as I leaned in for my customary peck on the cheek, I was denied access.

Yes.
Little rascal had worked out that it could get quite lucrative offering kisses to his Mum's female friends :-)
So now, Auntie Spacetraveller had to cough up some dough before she could get a kiss...

Well I never.
2 years ago, I was changing his nappy (diaper).
And now I had to pay up to pucker up :)
Can you believe this?! Or in Cockney rhyme, can you Adam and Eve this?!
Blimey! It's bad enough with the whole MGTOW thing. Now, it's LBGTOW too!
:-)
Well now he is almost a teenager. And dear old Auntie Spacetraveller will never again get a kiss out of him.
Even if she offers to pay :-)



What makes you laugh?
Tell us your amusing story!










11 comments:

senior beta said...

Good one ST. But do your posts have to be so damn long? I laugh most at the blogs. Telling stories about idiot guys who have not ingested the red pill. Meaning most of us. And Navy guy stories. Like Danny's. You must have laughed at his latest fight story.

dannyfrom504 said...

humor, it's 90% of my mojo. it works.

and i have the sex appeal of stomach cancer.

This Old Man said...

The trope of the old woman with cats has been around for a while:

Old Ella Mason keeps cats, eleven at last count,
In her ramshackle house off Somerset Terrace;
People make queries
On seeing our neighbor's cat-haunt,
Saying: ‘Something's addled in a woman who accommodates
That many cats.’

Rum and red-faced as a water-melon, her voice
Long gone to wheeze and seed, Ella Mason
For no good reason
Plays hostess to Tabby, Tom and increase,
With cream and chicken-gut feasting the palates
Of finical cats.

Village stories go that in olden days
Ella flounced about, minx-thin and haughty,
A fashionable beauty,
Slaying the dandies with her emerald eyes;
Now, run to fat, she's a spinster whose door shuts
On all but cats.

Once we children sneaked over to spy Miss Mason
Napping in her kitchen paved with saucers.
On antimacassars
Table-top, cupboard shelf, cats lounged brazen,
One gruff-timbred purr rolling from furred throats:
Such stentorian cats!

With poke and giggle, ready to skedaddle,
We peered agog through the cobwebbed door
Straight into yellow glare
Of guardian cats crouched round their idol,
While Ella drowsed whiskered with sleek face, sly wits:
Sphinx-queen of cats.

‘Look! there she goes, Cat-Lady Mason!’
We snickered as she shambled down Somerset Terrace
To market for her dearies,
More mammoth and blowsy with every season;
‘Miss Ella's got loony from keeping in cahoots
With eleven cats.’

But now turned kinder with time, we mark Miss Mason
Blinking green-eyed and solitary
At girls who marry—
Demure ones, lithe ones, needing no lesson
That vain jades sulk single down bridal nights,
Accurst as wild-cats.

Silvia Plath, 1956

Anonymous said...

Sometimes humour is difficult.

Spacetraveller said...

Danny,

:-)

You don't have the sex appeal of stomach cancer!

Humour (especially in the face of adversity) is VERY difficult - I agree wholeheartedly with Marellus on this.

But it is brilliant when executed with good effect.

If one can laugh in spite of oneself, one is instantaneously relieved of one's stresses, even if only momentarily. How great is that...

@ TOM,

Silvia Plath!
Would you believe I studied some of her work at school...
I always thought she was British, but a little research now tells me she was actually American.

Yes, the 'od woman with cats' thing is both hilarious and tragic depending on which side of the fence one is standing on.

I suspect that a lonely old woman with cats is better off than a lonely old woman without...

So the cats (or any other pet) are actually a good thing in that situation because they make for good company...which 'cures' the loneliness to some degree. (Of course the total absence of human contact remains, granted).


Spacetraveller said...

Ah, Senior Beta!

Just picked up your comment for the spam filter...sorry for that.

About the long posts...aherm! Sorry mate. I am trying...
New Year's resolution list just got a new addition, lol.

I must say, blogs detailing Blue Pill misery don't make me laugh! I get the opposite reaction to them these days...
Yes, Danny's stories (if they don't make me cry first), make me laugh :-)

Emma said...

Haha, I totally find men funny, for all their typically male traits. I'm a bit mean about what I laugh at, but it's all done lovingly. I find it funny how more risk-taking men are, and how they do all sorts of stupid stuff, like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1hTElrRg8I
Do you see many girls doing this?
Thought not.

Spacetraveller said...

Hahahahahahahahaha!

Thank you Emma for an outstanding example of why men are funny creatures!

And welcome to The Sanctuary!

No, I don't see many girls doing this :-)

I notice this guy was young...
I wonder if older men would also do this?
Perhaps...

Emma said...

I think men calm down a little bit with age :)

metak said...

@ ST

My imagination and humor kept me going through all those years of boredom in school. Learning more about myself and the nature of reality, only left a smile on my face. Humor, is at least to me, the next logical step when I absorb new information. It's a lot of fun for me, to connect it all together in a uniquely twisted and perverted way. ;-)

Spacetraveller said...

Good for you Metak.

I always say to myself that the day I cannot be induced to laugh or at least smile inwardly if not outwardly is the day I have to 'check out'.
There is always room for laughter. Not easy sometimes, eg. when your 6 year old child has just been shot dead at school by a madman.
But the promise of laughter is always there, even if it comes from the sheer memory of the departed child...