I carried two heavy bags of food toward the upstairs church kitchen with L close behind me, carrying three. We were setting up in a kitchen and Rec room area for her choir weekend workshop and were bringing the food and supplies in from the car. We were early and there was a Family Fun Night still happening at the church as we set up. Everyone, adults and kids alike, were in costume.
As we rounded the bend, an enormous rabbit head came toward us. Enormous. It was someone wearing not just a face mask, but a full head mask and they were just going about the business of cleaning up the room very casually, in the way one does when they have almost forgotten they’re wearing a costume. I turned to look sideways at L and sure enough, she was suppressing a smirk. Later, when we had put the things away and gone downstairs, the large rabbit was back and forth, picking things up, putting things down, tidying, working with the sign – in sheets. I glanced around and only one other person had a quiet smile on their face but each time the large rabbit emerged, L and I started quietly laughing to each other. Not in a nasty way – I mean this rabbit head and the person who wore it were great! It was just that for some of unexplained reason, we got more of a kick out of it than most other people there.
Humour has a way of manifesting itself in a particular way within different families. Families each have their own particular brand of “funny.” For some of might be practical jokes. Others might like watching comedies. Others still might love yelling jokes or playing funny games. With the exception of practical jokes, we like to do all of these things. My husband and I absolutely love stand up comedy. Our extended family has a blast with comical board games.
We also have seasons of a few comedy shows and there is almost nothing we like more than to watch them together. Time spent together watching different episodes leads to common jokes and phrases – references to a show that someone pops in at another time entirely and leads us to laughter. One time at supper, we got collectively laughing so hard, we had to stop the meal for a while. We just couldn’t get ourselves together. We currently have a common favourite British comedy, American comedy and Canadian comedy.
L LOVES bloopers. They can be from a show or just from a bloopers show all on its own. S loves funny memes… loves them. The other day I decided to count how many separate times S came to show me a humorous meme or Youtube video in approximately a two hour span. It was 15:).
One day we were sitting at my parents’ place and G found a list of jokes. Fairly corny jokes. He was just in that type of mood where even “not so good” jokes seemed hilarious and the more ridiculous or obvious they were, the funnier they began to seem. I brought a longer list to my parents’ place and we all had a great time.
Some of appreciating humour with family members is knowing the types of things that different people find funny.I can remember going as an older teenager to see The Lion King in the theatres with my mum (the original). The Pumba character seems like one we’re all familiar with now but at the time, it was a brand new thing. We were gasping in laughter. I knew when I saw the movie Zootopia that she would appreciate it and sure enough, it brought gales of laughter again.
And laughter truly IS the best medicine. It gets all the good chemical stuff swirling around inside our brains (AKA releasing endorphins). It decreases our stress hormones and boosts our immune systems. It lifts our spirits and the spirits of others. It draws us together, gives us a common point of reference with other people and simply brings everyone JOY.
Laugh hard. Laugh long. Laugh often.
Does your family have a particular brand of humour or jokes that keeps life fun?
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