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PREACHING SKILLSUnderstanding HumorThree things that make us laugh.Ken Davis
You can buy books that have all the variations of humor, but there are three broad categories that make something funny.
1. It's just plain true. When somebody identifies a pain, a struggle, that is just plain true, and we recognize how true it is, and how oblivious we have been to bringing it to our consciousness, we laugh. I wrote a book called How to Live with Your Parents without Losing Your Mind. Parents began writing.
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Write one for us. How come you won't write a book for us?
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So I wrote another book entitled, How to Live with Your Kids When You've Already Lost Your Mind. Every time I said the title people would laugh.
We go around pretending everything's okay. Someone has defined humor this way:
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Humor is a gentle way to acknowledge human frailty.
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That's the way we ought to use it. That's when humor is done properly. It can also be a way to try and destroy people, but then it ceases to be humor. I rephrase that definition:
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Humor is a way of saying I'm not okay, and you are not okay, but that's okay.
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Believers can add,
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because he loves us anyway.
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Show me people who take themselves too seriously and I'll show you people who don't have a sense of humor
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every single time
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because they're trying to perpetuate the perception of perfection. Nothing destroys families, corporate teamwork, or creativity more than trying to pretend you are perfect. You will never take risks, ever. You might fail. We are not perfect. That's why the people who look at my book title laugh. Parents know they're not perfect. They say things that not even insane people say.
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Hey, if you cut your legs off in that lawn mower, don't you come running to me!
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That's not something a sane person says.
We say things that have no foundation.
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I am sick and tired. I am sick and tired of it. I have had it with you clear up to here.
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How many of you have used that? Or heard it? Where did this come from? I asked my grandfather when I was writing the book,
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Have you ever heard this?
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He said,
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Yes. My grandfather used that.
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Where did this begin? Did cave people start this? Some cave guy grabbed his son by the hair,
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I am so sick and tired
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Is that why when they find the skeletons they're all swollen right there?
Why do you laugh? You laugh partly because I'm somewhat of an idiot, but you also laugh because you have said it. It's true.
My sweet wife
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we came home from a vacation. We'd been gone for two weeks. She opened the refrigerator. The most horrible
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I mean, we have two dogs; one of them fell over, his little back leg kicking out. She had forgotten a carton of milk. There is no smell worse than that. None. There was moss growing around the lip of the carton, it had been in there so long. This educated, beautiful woman said,
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Ken, come here. Hurry. Smell this.
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She said,
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I think it's spoiled.
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I said,
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Sweetheart, the dog is dead.
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She wakes me in the middle of the night.
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Listen!
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(How many of you are married? Does this sound familiar?)
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Listen.
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Now, I'm in a sound sleep. You could light a match on me.
I said,
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What?
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She said,
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Shhh, shhh. There it is again.
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Now my body is not touching the bed any more; only the hairs on my body are touching the bed. I'm waiting for the axe to fall. I'm waiting for a bullet to come. I know someone's going to kill us right now. She says,
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It's in the garage. Oh, no, what if he's escaped from? What if he has a chain saw?
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Then she grabs me and says,
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Go see.
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If there's a guy in my garage that has escaped from somewhere with a chainsaw, I am not going to confront him in a pair of Fruit of the Looms, excuse me. Although my wife said,
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I've seen your shorts. It will probably scare him away.
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The simple truth. How many of you have heard Bill Cosby tell a joke? Let me see your hands. You're all wrong. He's the wealthiest entertainer on the face of the earth, but I've never heard him tell a joke. He talks about truth. To My Brother Russell, with Whom I Slept.
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It's one of the most hilarious albums on the face of the earth. It is about two little kids sharing a bed, drawing a line, and saying,
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You stay over there.
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It is about Dad coming to the door. They can't see him, but they can see his shadow. Hilarious stuff about being at the dentist and trying to talk to the dentist because he sees smoke coming up out of his mouth.
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