Laughter is when our diaphragm rhythmically contracts, producing audible sounds responding to humorous events. Jokes, riddles, one-liners, and puns are verbal treats almost as good as ice cream cones.
The Greeks understood our need for Catharsis, the purifying purging of emotions through laughter or tears that brings cleansing and renewal—like a pressure cooker’s release valve.
Good Jokes include clever stories with definite beginnings, middles, and ends (punch line). Exquisite timing makes them better.
Riddles are statements with double meaning that take skilled problem-solving. They’ve been around a long time. One humor expert says riddling is universal and gives examples from hundreds of cultures including Finnish, Hungarian, American Indian, Chinese, Russian, Dutch, Filipino, and more. This great one describing a book worm comes from the 10th century Old English Exeter Book, Riddle 47.
A moth ate words. I thought that was a marvelous fate,
that the worm, a thief in the dark, should eat
a man’s words – a brilliant statement
and its foundation is strong. Not a whit the wiser
was he for having fattened himself on those words.
Here is one of my favorite jokes: A Chinese foreign student was a dinner guest in an American home. The hostess urged him to eat lots of wonderful food, insisting he take seconds and then standing over him offering thirds. Using his best English skill and manners, he spread his hands over his plate to stop food delivery and said, “My heart thanks you from the bottom but I am thoroughly fed up!”
My next favorite is the Polish man seeing an attorney because he’s sure his wife wants to kill him.
“What makes you sure?” the attorney asked.
“She has a bottle in the medicine cabinet called Polish Remover.”
“Does she have any reasons?”
“Ya, ya, she has them in her bran flakes every morning.”
No,” said the attorney, “does she have any grounds?”
“Ya, she has two-and-a-half acres.”
Believe it or not, the story keeps going from there. Obviously, clever word play means prized humor to me. Lest you think I’m racially unfair, my maiden name, Prosch, is supposed to be Polish—maybe that’s why it makes me laugh so much.
Happily, laughter sounds the same in every language!
What is your favorite joke or riddle? What makes it funny to you? Please share an example.
And have the best coming weeks possible!
I can’t think of my favorite riddle or joke right now, but I enjoyed yours!
Delores, would you consider a job teaching poetry at a prison? Please contemplate the Prose and the Cons, and let me know if you are interested…. 😉
Lester,
I did volunteer Bible teaching at a women’s penitentiary for three years, so I have a track record.