Enjoy a Good Laugh, a Chuckle or a Smile
We all appreciate it! Some experts claim that laughter, or even chuckles or smiles, decrease stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving our resistance to disease. Laughter, some say, triggers the release of endorphins which produce a sense of well-being and even temporary pain relief.
Even the Bible mentions laughter in Ecclesiastes 3:4…” a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”…
Proverbs 17:22 KJV – A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones.
I have been fascinated with what makes us laugh ever since I participated in an improvisational “improve class” in Hollywood during my acting days. Over time, as a writer and author, I have collected quotes of clever people as I have studied how they do it, and only wished that I could have thought of some of these clever quotes, many of them spontaneous.
Here is my own list of favorites with some examples that make us laugh. (When available, I have credited the source.)
PHYSICAL HUMOR, also called slapstick.
Examples are “America’s Home Videos”, seeing someone slipping on a banana peel, or seeing someone sliding across an icy sidewalk, or watching a puppy chasing his tail makes us laugh.
SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOR, putting yourself down as the brunt of the joke or even laughing at yourself.
Sometimes I think I understand everything, and then I regain consciousness.
I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my knickers.
I read an article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That’s my idea of a perfect day!
Signs on my refrigerator:
The last time I cooked this, almost no one got sick.
When the smoke alarm goes off, dinner is ready.
My bathroom scale lies, so I threw it out.
A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. (Bernard Meltzer)
Some of us learn from other people’s mistakes and the rest of us have to be the other people. (Zig Ziglar)
Dear Lord, if you can’t make me skinny, please make my friends fat.
I’m not confused. Wait. Maybe I’m not.
I have furniture disease. That’s where your chest slides down into your drawers. (I pulled this on my doctor with a straight face.)
Remember, as far as anyone knows, we’re a normal family.
IRONY OF LIFE and PARTIAL TRUTHS
My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait until all the groceries are unloaded from the car. (E Bombeck)
Sign in an Auto Shop: If you are grouchy, irritable, or just plain mean there will be a $10 charge for putting up with you. If you watch, $10 more, if you make suggestions, $20 more, and if you help, $50 more.
On vacation, we hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the salt water off our bodies and the sand out of our belongings.
SURPIRSE ENDINGS
Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery. (E. Bombeck)
If a man is alone in the woods and a woman is not there to hear him, is he still wrong?”
I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it. (Groucho Marx)
EXAGGERATION
Tim Conway as the ancient old man on “The Carol Barnett Show” is one of my favorites.
One of life’s mysteries is how a 2 lb. box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5 lbs.
The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.
Amazing! You hang something in your closet for awhile and it shrinks 2 sizes!
I’m not stubborn. My way is just better.
Only on a cruise ship will you pay hundreds of dollars a day to sleep in a closet.
SARCASM (often cutting but used to get a point across.) When insults had class:
I am enclosing 2 tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend…if you have one. (G.B. Shaw to Winston Churchill)
Response: Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second…if there is one. (Winston Churchill)
He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary. (W. Faulkner said about E. Hemingway)
He is a self-made man and worships his creator. (J. Bright)
He loves nature in spite of what it did to him. (F. Tucker)
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. (Oscar Wilde)
I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here. (Stephen Bishop)
He had delusions of adequacy. (W. Kerr)
ACCIDENTAL TYPOS THAT MEAN SOMENTING ELSE
They’re Back! Those wonderful Church Bulletins! Thank God for the church ladies with typewriters. These sentences appeared in church bulletins or were announced at church services:
- The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
- Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
- The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus Walks on the Water’. The sermon tonight: ‘Searching for Jesus’.
- Ladies don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
- Don’t let worry kill you off – let the Church help.
- Miss Charlene Mason sang ‘I will not pass this way again,’ giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
- For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
- Next Thursday there will be try-outs for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
- Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
- A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
- At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What Is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our choir practice.
Enjoy reading Annie’s recently published inspirational memoir, THAT ONE PERSON, by Annie Farris, written to encourage you in these challenging times. Now available on Amazon for $15.95, and Kindle for $9.99. Endorsed by Pat Boone and 18 others with numerous 5-star reviews. It makes a great gift!
AFTER YOU’VE READ THE BOOK, PLEASE GO TO AMAZON AND WRITE A REVIEW. Amazon will only allow Annie to advertise after she has 100 5 star reviews, a daunting job for a new author!
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