I was recently Christmas shopping in a crowded mall. My fellow shoppers were serious and dedicated to the task at hand, finding the doorbuster super specials. Most were clutching their smartphones close to their chests like it was a heart defibrillator. It is sad that in a season dedicated to hope and joy, we cannot find more time to relax and enjoy the good humor and fellowship that is a hallmark of Christmas in New Hampshire.
Humor is a cocktail of ingredients that comes in many flavors, from the bombastic to the subtle.
Let’s begin with the worst type of humor. The vulgar and profane. Practitioners of this form of humor are not in short supply.
We have all met them. Their humor consists of a limited vocabulary of foul four-letter words that are repeated over and over to make sure that we get the joke. They fail to appreciate that the value and charm of a well crafted funny story or joke is diminished by including vulgarity.
Next comes the earthy humor of the Mel Brooks school of humor. Robust and grounded in a long tradition of the Borscht circuit comedians, it strikes home with subjects that every listener understands. From his hit musical, The Producers, to the 2000 Year Old Man to Cloris Leachman’s line in Young Frankenstein, “he is my boyfriend,” the laughs keep coming.
In my adolescent innocence, I thought that “Bert and I” was funny stuff. Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean was one of my favorites in a long line of British comic characters. Victor Borge’s comedic style gave the grand piano a new lease on life. Carol Burnett delighted audiences with whit and grace. Her “curtain” scene in the Gone With the Wind parody is priceless. They all paid tribute to our ability to enjoy a good laugh.
Now comes the best kind of humor: the satirists. They have a long pedigree going back to the ancient Greeks. It’s the slow burn. Voltaire was the consummate satirist. His epic 1759 novella Candide, is full of sanguine wit just as humorous today as it was when he wrote it. A modern champion of satire was Will Rogers, the Oklahoma Cowboy. His dry wit and clean humor were in stark contrast to some current foul mouth stand-up comedians. He claimed that he never met a man he didn’t like. He never met Donald Trump. Elaine May and Mike Nichols “Mother and son” was one of the duo’s best comedy routine and is satire legend.
Good humor is the elixir of a person who is confident and at ease with life. No matter how dire the situation, they always manage to see a bit of humor in it. No one did it better than Mark Twain. His depth of compassion for people trying to make sense of life in difficult times is exemplified by his use of humor and warm and charismatic characters in his classic tale Huckleberry Finn.
One of the great benefits of having a sense of humor is it’s therapeutic effect. I look at myself in the mirror every morning. If that isn’t worth a good laugh, then I don’t know what humor is all about.
The holiday season can be a stressful time of year for many people. My advice is to cheer up and watch a holiday movie. A Christmas Story, Elf, Holiday Inn, Miracle on 34th Street, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, The Polar Express and the classic White Christmas are some of my favorites. They are all full of joy and good humor and guaranteed to make you smile.
Merry Christmas everyone.