Prescription: laughter
With the tidal wave of depressing news always lurking, let's take a few moments to add humor to the mix.
With so much negative dominating the news—pain and suffering seem to be especially plentiful—I am making a conscious decision to pivot away from that in this space today.
So, let’s try to open this new month with that best medicine: laughter.
Key & Peele’s Comic Appeal
A few weeks ago, in sharing about my substitute teaching experience, I mentioned my tongue-in-cheek butchering of even common names when I took attendance.
Little did I know that I was embodying (a much kinder, gentler version) of this Key & Peele skit, “Substitute teacher.” A few days after my column, a reader brought the video clip to my attention. I vaguely recall having seen it myself years ago, along with millions of other folks (215 million views in 11 years).
So it’s quite possible it was lurking in my subconscious when I created amusing garbled versions of all students’ names in one class.
Let’s bring it to your full consciousness (and you can pause/stop if it doesn't tickle your funny bone):
If you enjoyed “Substitute Teacher,” you can easily find “Substitute Teacher, Part 2” online.
Art Imitating (Another Comic’s) Life
Every time I see Jim Gaffigan on those Walmart commercials, microphone in hand and touting the store’s benefits, two things come to mind:
How much my mom adored Gaffigan’s humor. For years, before I ever saw him perform, she gushed about the big fella who frequently makes himself the butt of his jokes.
The time Bill Murray pulled this very stunt at a Walmart, in real life, here in the Chicago area.
It was 1992 and I was covering Streamwood, in Chicago’s northwestern suburbs, at the time. Clayton “Jay” Crane was the village attorney and, most significantly for this particular story, he was married to a Murray sister.
One morning at the Streamwood police station looking through police reports as part of my daily routine, I got the scoop through banter with a police officer I routinely chatted with.
Over the weekend, Murray had taken over the store’s PA system and urged shoppers to vote for Crane, who was running for judge. It was all a big joke, another instance of Murray’s mischievous public antics.
I don’t remember hearing about the made-up 70% discount deal (see the Chicago Tribune clip below, from the O’Malley and Collin INC. column), but I do know that Crane didn’t get on the bench—at least not right away.
All worked out fine for Jay: Four years later, he became a judge, and he served in that role for about 20 years.
I realize Murray in relatively recent times has come under fire for some alleged bad behavior; at the same time, the many examples of his outlandish, memorable and often generous acts are recounted extensively in The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing.
Just One More
Subbing at the high school yesterday, I saw a bunch of Halloween-themed one-liners in the latest edition of the Stall Street Journal (situated above the urinals). They were all bonafide chucklers, if not LOLers.
I neglected to snap a photo, so I am doomed to mangle the one I will attempt to reconstruct, but here goes anyway:
Q: Why can’t the ghost fool anyone?
A: Because people can see right through him.
On the bright side, a month ago I had the presence of mind to take a picture of a previous Stall Street Journal.
Although you might cringe at some of these, certainly at least one will click with most anybody.1 Do yourself—and others—a favor and pick what works for you and share it with someone else.
The tidal wave of depressing news will always be lurking. Break it up with something that will add laughter to the mix.
I mean: “Why can you never trust an atom? They make up everything.” Classic!