Anyone with a computer probably is familiar with LoL, meaning “lots of laughs” or “laugh out loud”. I’m not a frequent user of them, but I do love to laugh. I can’t imagine life without humour.
Readers old enough to remember listening to American comedian Jack Benny on radio and later television, might recall his deadpan dialogue and, on TV, his calm physical stances as he let his co-actors get credit for jokes. He had a reputation among entertainers for that generosity. However, the audiences might have thought he personally was just a humourless sourpuss.
Not so. Jack Benny loved to laugh. Behind the scenes he was known to hugely enjoy his fellow comedians. There are clips on YouTube of Benny almost “losing it” while laughing at someone else’s humour. To me, that in itself is hilarious: Benny slapping the table in almost helpless glee over a performance by someone else.
Here in Canada, I have been a fan of Royal Canadian Air Farce, Double Exposure (sadly now both off the air) and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
On Air Farce, Roger Abbott satirizing Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and Don Ferguson doing the same with Brian Mulroney and Pierre Trudeau, could have me laughing till tears flowed.
B.C. satirist Linda Cullen on Double Exposure did a sketch of the TV art historian nun Sister Wendy Beckett appraising a collection of erotic art and becoming embarrassingly aroused in the process. I believe Mary Walsh similarly portrayed the artsy nun on 22 Minutes some years ago. I was trying to describe those sketches to a friend who likes to laugh as much as I do, but I started to chortle so much in the re-telling that all he could do was smile in envy.
Recently I was re-reading a favourite book by Canadian author Farley Mowat, who was known for his humour almost as much as for his playing loosely with the truth. (“I never let the facts get in the way of a good story,” he was once quoted.) Suddenly, I would find myself putting the book down because I couldn’t see the words for tears of laughter. I would visualize the scenario of just one sentence of his written dialogue and see the funny side.
Many years ago when my wife Annie and I were spending our first Christmas together, we invited her mother to join us. She had lost her husband to cancer a couple of months previously and we didn’t want her spending the special day alone. After opening presents that morning, Annie sat her mother down in a comfy chair and told her to stay out of the kitchen while the Yuletide feast was prepared.
I was occupied trying to help Annie in the unfamiliar role of catering to her mother. As we worked away in the kitchen, we began hearing what sounded like sobs coming from the living room. After a while we became worried that her mom was weeping at the loss of her husband and this being the first Christmas without him.
