Humor is a funny thing and laughing is good for you. Who’s credited with spreading that upbeat news? Nobody knows for sure.
Search online for the world’s oldest jokes and you’ll find that wisecracking dates back to 1900 BC and those ancient jokes don’t always pass the smell test.
Comic relief has changed over the years and across the continents. As a young adult working in the creative department of an ad agency in New York City in the 1970s, many days we enjoyed the laugh-a-minute routines of clever writers and art directors on a roll.
Witty word plays, pranks, riddles, innuendo, mockery and puns ran rampant during the day when late night television was filled with antics of Johnny Carson, Buddy Hackett and Carol Burnett, to name a few, and quasi quiz shows like What’s My Line? and Hollywood Squares attracted lots of laughs way before LOL.
Laughs are connected by a willingness to deal with taboos and a degree of defiance against what’s considered normal. Sometimes jokes inspire belly laughs while others create yawns — and sometimes yawns are funny, too.
We’re mindful of widespread anxiety and disrupted economies throughout the world caused by this pandemic. We definitely don’t take the coronavirus lightly, but we understand laughter is a great release and has a place in passing time and helping keep us calm when making fun of social distancing and toilet paper.
What I’ve just learned recently is that modern puns, politically incorrect jokes and toilet humor can be traced back thousands of years if you choose to believe what you read online.
What’s more, research says hearty laughter brings on many health benefits; yet, when you think about it, experts aren’t needed to tell us what a good laugh out loud does to improve a mood.
I love wit and always have been blessed to know lots of funny folks, individuals who enjoy focusing on the bright side of life, even when a pandemic appears to consume us.
Laughter is contagious. My joke-telling dad enjoyed spreading good humor until his death last summer at age 96. Dad rarely could get through the punch line of a joke without laughing so hard everybody just joined him.
Considering what’s been spreading right now throughout the world, laughter not only is the contagion that you actually want to catch, it’s also the best medicine. So laugh whenever you get the chance, and laugh hard and loud even if you attract funny looks. The kind of individual you’ll enjoy most in your life likely will start laughing, too. Just give it a try.
Like old jokes, PN readers have traveled to and from every continent in the world. Now let’s all wash our hands, keep 6’ social distance, wear face masks and knock this pandemic out of this world. I don’t know about you, but I want to get back out on the beat.
– Stephanie Penick, PN Publisher
“To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it,” is a quote attributed to Charlie Chaplin, a British comic actor who lived from 1889 to 1977.
Beauty along the Riverwalk brings back memories of old joke
Noticing this bright yellow bush along the Naperville Riverwalk in April, an image of an old greeting card came to mind, one that pictures a man on front offering a yellow bouquet to a woman who exclaims, “Oh, how pretty. Are these for me?”
Inside the card the man replies, “No. They’re forsythia.”
Find simple pleasures and more humor among natural treasures…
During the steady rain on April 29 that pushed water up over its banks at May Watts Pond, you might say these Mallards were up at the quack of dawn in the wake of things to come in Naperville… Imagine how fast the ducks were going to create such a scene.
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