Chitchat and the occasional in-depth analysis about fiber, knitting, spinning, crochet, cooking, feminism, self-image, and a modicum of personal blathering.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Crowds'll pay to giggle if you wiggle your ears

I've been giving a lot of thought to the idea of being funny lately.

I'm a funny person. Not so much on paper or in text but in person, laugh a minute. I've got a wisecrack for every occasion.* A quick wit, honed, as it were, on the sandpaper of a contentious childhood. Being funny was, and is, part of who I am.

It's almost involuntary sometimes. I have a strange sense of humor. I love wordplay and cross-referencing. I don't like mockery or making fun of people. Old-fashioned slapstick is ok as long as nobody gets hurt, but I'm way more Monty Python than Marx Brothers. Even though I love both.

When I'm in uncomfortable situations, especially when other people are uncomfortable, I like to use humor to set everyone at ease. Or, I should say I can't HELP but use humor to set everyone at ease. I've done it at inappropriate times. I've done it when people really can't "get" what I'm saying. I've done it when people can't keep up with my leaps of imagination. One of the things I love most about Bob is that he can keep up with me.

Maybe at this point in my life I'm starting to get a little resentful of the fact that everyone expects me to be funny. Maybe it's just a passing phase. Maybe I wonder if people care about me for me, or because I make them laugh.

Even my kids sometimes seem like they're waiting for me to say something funny.

Doubt I'll change at this point. Absurdities exist and I can't imagine not pointing them out. I guess I amuse myself as much as I amuse anyone else and that's worth something. I'm not looking for answers, or excuses, or compliments, just making an observation about the ongoing cluster fuck that is my life.

Why yes, I'm having a depressive episode just now, why do you ask?

I finished another pair of socks and started two more. And I took some pictures. Nothing much else to report on the crafty front.

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Those are more Kai-Mei from the Cookie A book "Sock Innovation". The yarn is handspun superwash merino.

Here's a bee.

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And a spider web. May the twain never meet.

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* Case in point-"those kids in the back of the cab are so square you could play tetris with them." "it's enough to make me want to put butter in my coffee".

1 comment:

Meowser said...

I thought those lyrics were from "Make 'em Laugh" at first, but then I looked it up and realized it was actually "Make 'em Laugh"'s predecessor, "Be a Clown." For some reason, Cole Porter never sued, although "Make 'em Laugh" was a blatant (and intentional) knockoff. Oh well.

I'm even squarer than those kids, too, because I've never played Tetris and had to look up what a Tetris game looked like before I got the joke. Most people are less confused than I am, though.

I still am not sure what "butter in my coffee" means, though, although once again I'm sure everyone else does. :-P