I like to take those silly quizzes that crop up on social media from time to time. Recently I completed one in which I had to name sixty comedians. I got a fairly good score of fifty three correct out of sixty. A few were unfamiliar to me, but I silently cackled as I saw the monikers of the fifty three that I knew so well. I suppose that I cut my teeth on comedians when my father was still alive. Some men back in the day loved the cowboy shows on television. Others were enthralled with the detective and police stories. My father invariably chose comedy over any other type of program. To this day I can still call up an image of him laughing with glee over the jokes and pratfalls of his favorite funny men. 

I suppose that I naturally followed in his footsteps even after he died. Just as I became an avid reader under his influence, so too did I love to laugh at the many funny characters who plied their trade in humor. I still enjoy a good comedy more than anything else, but there don’t seem to be as many of them as there once were when I was younger. There was a time when there would be several opportunities to laugh on any given night as funny sitcoms were a staple on television. Somehow it feels more difficult to find such programs than it once was. 

It would be impossible for me to list all of the performers and shows and movies that made me jolly to the point of happy tears. Laughter has been so much a part of my life that hardly a day has passed when I did not enjoy a good joke. Some of my favorite students were the class clowns who briefly interrupted my serious presentations of mathematical concepts with a bit of levity. The truly gifted humorists seem to know exactly when the time was right to break the tension of mastering quadratic equations. 

My father learned jokes and was masterful in telling them, but my brother, Pat. one upped our dad by having a natural born ability to actually create humor on the spot. I often think of how much our father would have enjoyed the frivolity that Pat brings to family gatherings with his wit. Now it seems that his young grandson, Lex, has developed the same talents. With him I think that laughter will continue down the family line for years to come. 

I am nothing more than a die hard appreciator of humor. I’m one of those people who can mangle a good joke like it had been mauled. I get lost in the telling and deliver the punchline all wrong almost every single time. I gave up long ago attempting to entertain with my jocularity. I can tell a touching story and even write about something that is quite hilarious, but I have zero skill in the oral presentation of humor. 

My brother is so skilled that he has saved me a few times by jumping into my failing efforts as though we had preplanned a skit in which I would be the air head and he the sophisticated humorist. I never minded his interruptions with witty thoughts that saved me from laying an egg. I willingly fell into the role of the dim-witted sidekick to save face. Eventually I just stopped trying to be a comedic entertainer and simply enjoy the work of the real artists of humor. 

Thursday nights were my favorite in a time long ago. That’s when I would settle down in front of the television with my papers to grade while I watched Seinfeld followed by Friends. I laughed so hard, particularly with Seinfeld, that I felt all the tensions of being a teacher just melt away. It became a weekly ritual that was as effective in getting me to relax as a slew of therapy sessions might have been. On those nights I fully understood why humor is so important in our human journey. Laughing is as important to our good health as crying. Those who give us this gift are the Shakespeares of mirth.

Sometimes as William Wordsworth said, “the world is too much with us.” Right now so much is happening across the globe and in our own backyards that we feel weary and maybe even a bit hopeless from time to time. We would all do well to pause now and again for a good laugh. It is not disrespectful to insect humor into the dreary days of our lives. In fact, it can be refreshing as long as the digs are not mean spirited and intended to hurt someone. 

Some of my favorite people have made me laugh in difficult times. There was always a fellow teacher who helped us to relax with well chosen humor when tensions were high during the school year. I have known people who brought smiles to everyone’s faces even at funerals with a funny story about the deceased. Somehow their joyful tales cut through the grief and remind us of the really good times that we enjoyed with the departed. We were able to smile as the memories became a blessing. 

We certainly have serious issues to tackle, but a bit of laughter will not interfere with our ability to develop solutions. In fact laughing together may be the first important step in working together. Like infants who smile and chuckle so naturally, we are all made to be joyful and to turn our lips into an upward curve. Go out and find something funny today. Inject a bit of laughter into your day. It is good medicine that costs nothing and brings us healing moments that we all need.