I love humour!  It is a great stress reliever!  One should always seek the absurdities in every situation!  This will help alleviate whatever ails you!   There are millions of types of humour out there, where to start? Here’s a list:

Different types of verbal humor

I am a particular fan of the following; nonsensism, parody repartee ,satire, understatement,  wisecracks,  caricature, hyperbole, irony, hell I love all of them!  Oh, and I absolutely adore gallows humour and ‘blue’ humour!  The fact that there are no unified theories of humour is a joke in and of itself.  All the better!  I have never been a fan of the overanalysing or over-intellectualizing of things, sometimes a duck is really just a duck.  This is where humour comes in handy when dealing with such topics.  If you think to hard your brain will burst! 

Ever dealt with a long winded jack-ass?  The type who loves the sound of their own voice?  How about the reject who over-compensates for their lack of self-worth by showing everyone how smart he/she is?  I have come across many a gear-box such as this and it wasn’t pretty!  How do you deal with this?  Once you finish crying, it’s time to get to work!  This is where humour comes in handy.  Here’s a scenario:

Gearbox:  Blahblahblahblah  ad nauseum(this can go on for an infinite amount of time).  It can occur under many different circumstances and in different environments.  Once they have finished babbling, the time is ripe to strike!  Start off in an innocuous manner.  Make pretend you were actually interested in what it is they said.  Start off sounding just as scholarly(?) as they initially did.  This is where nonsensism is invaluable.  After you start, slowly veer off into the absurd.   Take the things they were talking about and turn these topics on their head.  The goofier the better.  If you are good at it,  the asshole will not realize you are having them on until you are quite heavily into the conversation!  This is especially effective when dealing with conspiracy theorists, people who make claims about the land of Thule, and other ridiculous topics, such as humans originated on Uranus, or argue the inarguable in general.  Don’t feel bad, these goofs asked for it!  The topics of their conversations were more than likely absurd to start with.  Oh, and try to employ as many ten letter, obscure verbiage as you can manage.  Baffle them with more bullshit in this way if you can. 

Self-depreciating humour also comes in handy especially if you are on a blind date, or in some other type of ludicrous situation.  It also helps when you are accident prone in public places.  I will use myself as an example to illustrate this point.   I am prone to slipping and falling at the most embarrassing times.  If there is a hidden pot hole, a hidden patch of ice around, I will fall down!  It always happens in public too!  As I can’t get a break in this regard, I use self-depreciating humour to offset any embarrassment.  Cussin’ and humour can work quite nicely in conjunction for situations such as this.   If you slip and fall and do not break anything or hurt yourself too badly, throw in a couple of cuss words and jokes!  For example; “Shit, fuuck!!!, I am such a gearbox!”  Then laugh, get up off your ass, and keep walking as if nothing happened.  It will provide great jokes as you recount and embellish the incident in the future.  Don’t employ this humour too often as it can take a toll on you.  You may begin to believe that you are indeed a gearbox, klutz, asshole or fool!  Use this type of humour in situations which call for it!

I am also a fan of the repartee.  This is called for when dealing with assholes of the first order(is there a second and third?).  When you come across a first class sac of shit, repartee is invaluable.  This takes time and years of practice to perfect.  You must hone your repertoire of insults.  Cussin and humour are  interchangeable so perfect you cussin vocabulary also.   Depending on the goof and the situation, proceed accordingly.    Also employ caution as the focus of your repartee may be a psycho.   An example of this type of humour is illustrated in my ‘Worlds Greatest come on lines’ post.  So it comes in handy and can be used along with the self-depreciating type of humour as well.   Don’t you just love the myriad and practical ways that humour can be used?

Humour is a great alleviator of stress as mentioned before.  Remember that old standard, ‘When you’re Smiling’?  Well it’s true!  Even gallows humour can be indispensible.  If you’re in a dangerous situation or bad one in general, humour may help to ease the situation.  If nothing else, you can use these situations for joke fodder should you survive.   This puts me in mind of that old son ‘Cry’ by Johnny Ray.   Oh and ‘The Laughing song’ from Die Fledermaus by Johan Strauss.  Laughing and crying!  Both are cathartic and their own ways!  Lord, I think I’ll do other posts on humour but not now, I have an Angus burger with bacon and cheddar cheese getting cold as I type!

‘What is it that strikes a spark of humor from a man? It is the effort to throw off, to fight back the burden of grief that is laid on each one of us. In youth we don’t feel it, but as we grow to manhood we find the burden on our shoulders. Humor? It is nature’s effort to harmonize conditions. The further the pendulum swings out over woe the further it is bound to swing back over mirth.’

Mark Twain, 1905.