Humor Month is Time for Fun!

Picture by hilmandale

As some of you know, April is National Humor Month. Just in case you haven’t found the time to enjoy this national celebration, here are a few ideas to help you cram a month full of fun into 1 ½ weeks!

First, you must stop by the great National Humor Month web site. Try some of their free downloads. I recommend 30 Days, 30 Ways if you need a humor lift. You can also try many of the ideas from their Classroom Tools list. This handy little brochure has lots of tips for teachers and students, but many, if not all can be used by anyone who wants to practice and enjoy the benefits of humor.

Read some children’s poetry and books. For riotous rhyming poems that will have you rolling on the floor laughing, visit Kenn Nesbitt’s Poetry for Kids web site. This fun-filled stop encourages children to try their hand at poetry and is full of playful, mischievous poems that you will love to repeat again and again. Today my favorites are “My Car is Constructed of Pickles,” and “A Rock Makes an Excellent Puppy.” Kenn Nesbitt’s whimsical style is great fun that shouldn’t be missed.

Here are a few other ideas:

• Tell a joke.
• Watch a funny movie.
• Say a tongue twister. “Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gabbling goblins.”
• Practice different laughs. Snicker, chuckle, chortle, giggle, guffaw, hee-hee.
• Share your favorite TV commercials. One of my favorites right now is the Ice cream and cake song. “Ice cream and cake, ice cream and cake. . .” The best part is the toy T-Rex dinosaur with bunny ears on.
• Sing your favorite happy song. “Don’t Worry be Happy.”
• Listen to comedians on CD. Bill Cosby can still crack me up.
• Read some comic strips in the newspaper.

While looking for the Ice cream and cake video, I found that Baskin-Robbins updates it for the holidays. Here's the Easter one (note T-Rex's bunny ears.)

Here's the Halloween version. . .

Be a Better Villain.

Humor gives us perspective and insight into almost any situation. This book review/humor guide helps us to see how even something as terrible as crime and plots to destroy the world can be funny. Using humor, exaggeration, and playfulness, this look at make-believe evil can be used as salve against real-life malevolence and foul deeds.

The Villain’s Guide to Better Living by Neil Zawacki is a fun-filled, rib-tickling romp through the mind and life of your average evil doer. As Neil explains the hardships of villainy “You can invent a death ray, but you still have to work nights at the video store. You can even replace all humanity with robots, but you can’t convince any of them to go to the movies with you.”

Through this book we find that like real-world criminals, those in the fantasy realm suffer the same fears, frustrations and issues as we every day citizens. Many are geeky, immature, self-conscious and nervous. They struggle with home decorating – should they use glowing green mutant men or the warm orange glow of torches for indoor lighting?

What about home protection? Should you go with a classic, paint-peeling, bat-infested, musty, creaky haunted house, or simply use an invisibility spell to keep out intruders? What about work? You need money to finance your diabolical ventures. You may need a professional resume writer. One proficient in wording and phrasing who can turn: “Raising an army of the dead,” into “Knowledgeable in training coworkers.”

There are even tips for your daily commute. Such as making those traffic jams more bearable by “unleashing your swarm of monkey men.” I have to admit I find the idea tempting myself. If only I had thought to make such an army! There are even tips for “motivating your minions.” Some suggested techniques are “whippings, bribery, ogre supervisors, and lots and lots of shouting.’ Wait – that sounds somewhat familiar. . .

Mr. Zawacki even dips into the social arena, with tips on forming fiendish alliances. Thoughts include “creating life (your own undead monster), secret societies, seedy alien bars, and mind control (such as hypnotism).” Couple that with a one-eyed moat monster or a three-headed hellhound and you’ve got all the companionship any bad guy could ask for.

We could all do with a good laugh, and this book provides those in spades! Filled with unpleasant insight, and revolting revelations, this is one horrifically good read. With all the stress of politics, finances, and the every day struggle of living, this is a must read for humor fans and horror fans alike. Check it out today.

Elderly Jokes

The old lady and the birds by soylentgreen23

Even in my youth (I’m only 36), I feel the aches and pain of old age creeping up. My knee is tweaked, my foot aches, and I’m tired more often. So when my “older” friends send me these jokes, they really make me laugh. I hope you will enjoy them too. Life is nothing without laughter!

Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked,
'How old was your husband?' '98,' she replied.
'Two years older than me'
'So you're 96,' the undertaker commented.
She responded, 'Hardly worth going home, is it?

Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman:
'And what do you think is the best thing
about being 104?' the reporter asked.
She simply replied, 'No peer pressure.'

The nice thing about being senile is
you can hide your own Easter eggs.

I've sure gotten old!
I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement,
new knees, fought prostate cancer and diabetes
I'm half blind,
can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine,
take 40 different medications that
make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts.
Have bouts with dementia.
Have poor circulation;
hardly feel my hands and feet anymore.
Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92.
Have lost all my friends. But, thank God,
I still have my driver's license.

I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape,
so I got my doctor's permission to
join a fitness club and start exercising.
I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors.
I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, by the time I got my leotards on,
the class was over.

An elderly woman decided to prepare her will and
told her preacher she had two final requests.
First, she wanted to be cremated, and second,
she wanted her ashes scattered over Wal-Mart.
'Wal-Mart?' the preacher exclaimed.
'Why Wal-Mart?'
'Then I'll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week'

My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

Know how to prevent sagging?
Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.

It's scary when you start making the same noises
as your coffee maker.

These days about half the stuff
in my shopping cart says,
'For fast relief.'

THE SENILITY PRAYER :
Grant me the senility to forget the people
I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and
the eyesight to tell the difference.

7 Ways to Improve TV News:

Capture from TV tuner card by mrebert

The news is often depressing, sad, dreary and just plain unwatchable. Sure we may need a little bit of information about the state of the world, but it seems to me there might be a few places to they could improve the delivery. Here are few ideas of my own:

1. After every horrible, unhappy story, show pictures of cute, fuzzy baby animals.
2. No speculators please. Don’t guess or imagine what horrible possible scenarios may occur, or why an unspeakable atrocity was committed. Stick to the facts, or don’t do the story at all.
3. Put it on at 2 a.m., when hardly anyone is awake or watching TV.
4. Skip the pictures and descriptions of the brutal mutilation of some hapless victim. Whether in the morning, noon or 6 p.m., this is a definite appetite destroyer.
5. Have circus clowns as hosts to help take your mind off the negative reporting.
6. No more so-called experts please. Just ask the people on the street – they’re right just about as often, and are not nearly so smug about it.
7. Put on 2 positive stories for each negative one shown. (Yes they are out there, you simply have to look.)

Here are a few more freebies:

• Stop all those flashing headlines and tickers running across the screen. They are enormously distracting. Save that stuff for when something truly devastating occurs.
• Skip the celebrity updates. Unless one of them has cured cancer we don’t need to know. That’s what talk shows and Inside Edition are for.
• Don’t report about the same problem more than twice in one week unless you’ve suddenly come up with a solution of your own.
• Every hour flash a black screen with the message “Time for a news break. Please enjoy this musical collage of playful puppies.”

Answers to the Energy Crisis.

Picture by Lollie-Pop

In these stressful days when gas prices keep us home more often, and the TV is full of nonsense and hype, we all need a little comedy relief. It seems everyone and their mother has an idea to offer to solve our energy problems. Here are just a few more ideas. . .

• Foot Power: The Flintstones is the inspiration for this idea. No more high gas prices. Now we use the power of our feet. Stinky, dry and rough, or with long yellow nails, suddenly feet are beautiful. We could launch Pedal Power Plants in every gym in America.
• Celebrity Power: Everywhere you look there are celebrities; newspapers, TV, Internet and more. At the next award show simply line the red carpet with lots of wind generators. All that hot air could power us for a year.
• Weed Power: Why bother with corn-based ethanol? Instead we could use crab grass, dandelions, thistles and more. All those nuisance, fast-growing weeds that do nothing but get in the way. At the rate they grow we’ll be energy independent in 6 months.
• Bean Power: This one is self-evident, but easily overlooked. Simply take 1,000 people or so and have a free bean tasting event. Then lock them all in a steel tanker. Viola – a free source of natural gas.
• South Park Power: As any fan knows, if we simply put Butters in charge of Imaginationland our troubles will quickly disappear. All it takes is a little mind power and poof – instant resolution. No messy processing plants or waiting needed.
• Psychic Power: This is another no-brainer. Gather the top ten psychics from across the nation together and have them give us the answers. After all, they’re psychics - they already know exactly what we need to do.
• Hoof Power: Bring back horse travel. Just think of the income generated by all the necessary street cleans, boot makers and corral builders. It will instantly lower fuel costs, with the added bonus of boosting the economy.
• Berry Power: Have the government issue every citizen a new Blackberry device – complete with a paid service plan. We could all communicate instantly via email, text message and phone, thereby reducing the need to actually go anywhere.

What creative solutions do you have for the energy crisis? Leave your great ideas in the comments section. Thanks for stopping by and have a fun day!

Humor Heals

Happy Fish by PixelFixer

As many of you know, for the past several weeks I’ve been away attending to a family emergency. We returned home for a short week and then headed back after receiving a call that the family member had been hospitalized once again.

During this time we have been scared, confused, frustrated, tired, and overwrought. After feeling guilty for having fun and taking time for myself during this difficult time, I have recently realized anew how important your sense of humor is for your health.

Have you ever laughed so hard you cried? Well, what about when you’ve cried your eyes out until someone’s joke made you laugh uncontrollably? Don’t you instantly feel better? Doesn’t the laughter feel invigorating and the deep movements of a good belly laugh give you more oxygen and energy? It’s happened to me on several different occasions (to my vast relief and enjoyment.)

During challenging times such as illness and disease, financial stress or other serious problems, laughter and humor sometimes feel inappropriate. However, laughter and humor are wonderful coping tools during the most unpleasant and exhausting days. It can bring a smile to your face, relieve tension, and put things in a new perspective.

Reading the comics, hearing a joke or watching a funny TV show or movie may be the only time you feel free to enjoy yourself without guilt. But as in all things "this too shall pass." Using your sense of humor to help you see past the current doom and gloom can produce ideas and solutions you would have never thought of in your otherwise negative state of mind.

From my own personal experience I find that having a background of using humor regularly helps you to use it more easily during stressful times. Your sense of humor can not only aid you in relaxing and relieving tension, but can also help those around you feel more at ease. This comes more naturally to some of us than others. I admit that even after years of learning and practicing humor and allowing myself to be silly, I still initially held it back. I mistakenly thought it would be considered rude or offensive.

However, once I started laughing and smiling more, so did the other people around me. It allowed everyone to unwind, and was a gateway to talking about topics that were sensitive in nature. I heartily recommend to all my readers that you start practicing your humor skills today. You never know when they might be needed.

What Makes You Laugh?

Happier squircle by tj scenes

Everyone wants to enjoy a good sense of humor and a playful attitude, but how does one begin? If you don’t laugh often, or have a mindset that says humor is something that can only be indulged in after the hard work is done, you may need a little help to begin. But almost everyone can learn to add more pleasure, fun and playfulness to their day.

You can start by identifying what makes you laugh. Make a list of your favorite funny movies, comedians, cartoons, and commercials. Perhaps you’re a slapstick kind of person, drawn to the Three Stooges, SNL stars like Chris Farley, or one Mr. Wile E. Coyote, dastardly foe of the speedy Roadrunner.

Maybe you enjoy spoof comedies like Airplane or Hot Shots. Perhaps you have a favorite columnist or author who excels in witty commentary or sarcastic jokes. You might enjoy the off-key hilarity from the next crop of delusional contestents to audition on American Idol. Whatever your taste, there is something out there for everyone. You only need to identify the type of humor you enjoy. Here’s a list of different types of humor to get you thinking.

It’s also important to know what kind of humor you dislike. If you love Adam Sandler but find Jackass star Johnny Knoxville offensive, it will help you choose what to watch and what to skip. Do you love Mad TV’s celebrity impersonations, or are the exaggerated stereotypes from NBC’s The Office more your style? Finding the types of humor you enjoy is a key factor to increasing your appreciation for fun.

Most of all, approach humor with an open mind. Read the newspaper for inadvertently funny headlines. Skip down the hall when you go to the restroom. Leave a humorous message on your answering machines. When you relax and let go, the possibilities are endless.

Here are a few great humor techniques:

• Wear a clown nose during your drive home from work.
• Visit your local comedy club once a month.
• Buy a great cartoon book like The Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, or Peanuts. Read often.
• Get a humor ally. Find a friend who enjoys the same type of humor as you do.
• Get some humor toys; a super bouncy ball, a Scooby Doo figure, some juggling balls, the Shrek soundtrack or a CD from your favorite comedian.

Be open and enjoy the process. Don’t expect instant results. Here is my own confession; when I first started playing with humor, I often hid it from other people. I would sing alone in my car, dance in my bedroom with blinds drawn and door shut, and my funny file was in the bottom drawer at work where no one could see it.

Now I’m a little more public about my fun side, but I’m still not as free as I’d like to be. I still worry about what people will think of me. Sometimes I still sink into my chair when I spill something on my new shirt or when I’m caught dancing to music while I shop. But little by little I’m getting better.

I’d love to hear your story. To help you get started with your journey into fun, here are a few great sites:

Therapeutic Benefits of Laughter

Benefits of Humor in Healthcare

Chief Happiness Officer (Being Happy at Work)

500 Fun Things To Do

Healthy fun.

Isn’t it amazing that some of us need a prod to have fun? Why in the world should we need a push or a reminder to do things we enjoy? (Personally I’d rather get a good push on the swing set!) We need to stop believing that working harder equals doing better. We need to stop believing that if we’re enjoying ourselves we’re not really working. Some of these outdated beliefs come from our parents and grandparents. Others are passed on by society.

The world travels at such a fast pace, many of us have trouble keeping up. We feel compelled to have the newest gadgets, the latest products and to do something great, to be noticed. During all that hustle and bustle we get overworked and stressed. We forget that work and home and computers are just stuff. We forget to relax, play, smile and enjoy our journey.

Fun is healthy for us in so many ways. Fun activities often include movement, whether we’re playing a game of basketball with our kids, dancing to some music, or riding the Ferris wheel at the state fair. Fun also relieves stress. Science has proven over and over that laughter lowers blood pressure, boosts the immune system and produces endorphins that elevate our mood. How much more incentive do we need?

Fun helps us mentally too. Experiments have proven that after viewing a funny movie we are more flexible and open to new ideas. We’re more likely to view circumstances in a positive light. Yet still we are held back by fear of being seen as foolish. As someone who has suffered that myself, let me reassure you. You will feel silly, stupid and like you’re wasting your time. People will tell you so. Don’t listen to them!

After consistently scheduling fun into my life and reading and learning about the many scientific benefits of laughter, positive thinking and an optimistic outlook, I can tell you I regret far more how long it took me to loosen up, than whether a few friends and relatives think I’m weird. Those people are usually much too serious themselves, and wouldn’t know a good time if it bit them on the butt.

Fun helps me every day to be grateful for what I have (and sometimes what I don’t). It enables me to enjoy a movie on a rainy day or my favorite CD in a traffic jam. It lets me celebrate every family get together, even if they only come every couple of years. Fun helps me savor my good times and reminds me that those bad days aren’t as numerous as I thought.

Fun is a great motivator too. Every time you have a chore you don’t want to do, or a job you don’t like, you can remember that 1 hour of cleaning now will give you 5 hours of free fun time this week. And that job you dislike pays for your action movies, concert tickets and new shoes. When you are aware of the numerous benefits of fun, I think you’ll begin to look for it and put more into your life.

Swingset soaring
Originally uploaded by khosey1

Keeping a Funny File or Cheer Box.

Uploaded on September 10, 2006
by allspice1 Time limitedOriginally uploaded by allspice1

We all have those days when we’re feeling lonely, bored or depressed. We just need a little pick-me-up, but perhaps our family or friends are busy or out of town. Maybe we just want to cherish memories of fun things we enjoy. Whatever the reason a Funny File will add some fun and laughter to your life.

This is simply a place to collect funny items that make you smile, chuckle or laugh out loud. Bumper stickers, newspaper cartoons, cute pictures, greeting cards or quotes about humor. Anything at all. A Cheer Box is the same thing, just for bigger and bulkier items. Funny buttons, character pens and pencils, cute post-it notes, collectible figures of your favorite character or animal and more. The idea is to have a box of amusing and playful items and to keep them all in one area. I’ve had a Funny File for over 3 years, and I refer to it quite often. It’s often a great way to break through writer’s block and it enhances creativity. Plus it’s just fun.

Here are just a few items I have on hand:

• A Spongebob Squarepants figure with a button that changes his eyes from small to large and then to hearts.
• About 10 Weird Al Yankovic CD's.
• Pictures of Redskin’s player Clinton Portis dressed up in crazy costumes for his interviews.
• Spongebob Squarepants pens and pencils.
• Bumper sticker quotes I found on the Internet.
• Mike Kerr’s article 130 ways to put humour to work.

An old issue of Time Magazine called The Science of Happiness.

Try it for yourself and let me know how it works. And feel free to submit additional ideas to add to the fun. Have a great day!

Smile File: People I can laugh at.

elf's first taste of spiked egg nog!
Originally uploaded by angela7dreams

"I will find humor in my everyday life by looking for people I can laugh at." - -Unknown

Smile File: Ethan child genius on Leno.

This is a great video I only came across today. It's a 6 year-old child prodigy Ethan Bortnick on the Jay Leno show. Not only is he an amazing pianist, he's really funny too! (P.S. Watch the volume when it opens - -it starts out loud.)

Put some funny into your life!

One of my favorite things to do nowadays is to read funny web sites, blogs, and newsletters. So many days, things either seem really dull, or little problems and irritants bring me down. One new solution for me is to read or watch something funny. I love You Tube’s many parodies, The Happiness Project blog, and web sites like Happy News.

I’ve read several good books too; one of my many favorites is A Whack On The Side Of the Head by Roger van Oech. I also love Laffirmations by Joel Goodman, and the funny books by Barbara Johnson, author of Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy. All of these books offer insight into why adding laughter and fun into your life will help you copy with any illness, disease, money problems or even divorce. There is nothing that can’t be made better with a little laughter.

There are so many great articles and web sites out there to check out. Here are just a few (in no particular order):

• 
  Why Work Stress IS a Laughing Matter! By Mike Kerr. Work stress takes a huge toll on our physical and mental well-being. Find out why laughter and a positive sense of humour (or heck, humor) truly is the best medicine when it comes to managing our work stress.

• Do You Have a Humor Deficiency Syndrome? By Larry Wilde. Test your funny bone and see if you have HDS with this short quiz.

• Stress Humor and Health see information on humor and healing from two people in the health care field. Cute site.

Well I hope this information is helpful or at least interesting. Feel free to leave comments and share your best funny sites or books with me. Have a fun-filled day!

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.