What Makes Me Laugh

Recently, someone asked where I got my sense of humor. I wanted to say that it was on sale at Target, but I controlled myself.

It did get me thinking and I started jotting down all the things that I found humorous, starting as far back as I could remember. The list quickly got out of hand.

I'm embarrassed and slightly horrified to think about how many impressionable years I spent watching "The Three Stooges" and "Looney Tunes." We all did at that time. I think it's a minor miracle that we don't all go around poking people in the eye and slapping them on top of the  head. Not all the time, anyway.

Fortunately, there were a lot of good comedies when I was young, starting with "I Love Lucy." I know it is very dated, but if you can get over the male/female relationship issues there is great humor there, physical and verbal.

Carol Burnett came along with her variety show. She had an amazing cast and team of writers who created sketches that are still funny. Laugh until you cry funny. Some of the funniest lines came when she was answering questions from the audience. Even ad libbing, she was great.

Dick van Dyke was part of my early exposure to good humor as well.

All of these shows still make me laugh at times, even when I know what's coming.

Moving on to movies, I was quite young when I fell in love with Danny Kaye. Not him personally, but the characters he played and the rapid, tongue-twisting speeches that popped up in his movies. This was back in the dark ages when my pet dino and I were allowed to watch movie reruns on rainy Saturday afternoons.

My all-time favorite comedy is "Arsenic and Old Lace." My mom loved it, so we watched it whenever it was on. I'm sad that many younger people aren't familiar enough with history to catch some of the humor, such as the uncle who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks in the basement (for the Panama canal) and leads the charge up San Juan Hill every time he goes up the stairs. But I explained it to my girls and will explain it to my grandsons when they're old enough to appreciate the movie.

But the biggest influence on my sense of humor was ...

You know, this has gotten rather long. I think I'll finish next week.

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