Nothing is Funny in Itself

People who are already inclined to laugh contribute a favorable condition to the social nature of humor. Starting from a cheerful mood, they allow humor to rise among them without impediment or judgment and they accompany it to the surface. Were it not for the personal guidance of humor, nothing humorous would be recognized. 

The guidance of humor is the special quality humor has. A comic or text is not inherently funny, it must be discovered as such to elicit amusement - otherwise it goes unheard - recognized, perhaps... but not enjoyed. 

This tells us how important is the role of the audience to the humorous event. Nothing is funny without an audience, which indicates that humor is a quality of our own making. A maleable aspect within ourselves to constitute a notion of humor... of incongruities and novelties. 

Humor embodies an epiphanic behavior, an almost forbidden behavior to that compensatory reaction we have to feelings and emotions that internal and external stimuli evoke within us. Clearly, humor is associated with novelty - what we find amusing. 

I'd like to bring attention to my blog's rating. Some individuals do not react positively to images of peace and tranquility one encounters when Googling the keywords "peace" and "tranquility".  In fact, positive words like - LAUGH - BE HAPPY - SMILE - can cause physical discomfort for some individuals when they come across them; the very opposite reaction occurs for others...reactions of contentment, felicity, and joy. 

But what happens to humor when it includes an element of discomfort? 

(I say this because while you might have read the caption, the moment you saw this lego you CRINGED in agony and from your gut to your heart you instantly recognized how much IT HURTS to step on one of these legos - if this has never happened to you, then you are an exception. You probably read the heading and then remembered trying to pry these suckers apart - if you didn't have that reaction, you're over a certain age and did not play with legos growing up - nuff said.)

Early on in my exploration of humor I identified my comfort levels, my own "Happy Place". This "Happy Place" is far-reaching. It extends into the deepest crevices of the human mind to the furthest reaches of space-time and the nature of existence. It lands on popular lullabies and hides in the best hide-n-seek spots around. It is a reaffirmation of warm, positive emotions that define my perception of humor... it is my own being that corrects and creates humor out of nothing. 

It is me laughing at this Zen comic and relating how I said "we create humor out of nothing" to the "nothingness" of Buddhism....hehehe. 

Humor's out there... inside everyone - unless you have a humor deficiency. In which case, I recommend reading about the concept of humor itself. Explore the descriptions and imaginings of philosophers and mathematicians, alike. Marvel over the works of Bergson, Freud, Raskin, Berger, Fry, and others. Let a guide help you find out what humor means to you. 

Exploring humor may not, at first, impress upon you the relevance of humor, but stick with it long enough and you begin thinking in terms of funny, not funny... enjoyable, not enjoyable. Every subject that comes up is seen from this new perspective. Then, when you turn that humorous perspective inward, you laugh and take delight with yourself. All the irony and incongruities tickle us in the heart and we react in our stomachs, which pushes up air, which then escapes through our mouths and sounds a little like laughter. 

Song Lyrics Graphic

Facebook Abbey

Facebook: "Social Networking: Classic." 

The more things upon which we click "like" ...the more often they appear in public news feeds, no matter how fervently Lord Google and fans of other social networking sites may wish otherwise. 

In Facebook Abbey, it is the dawn of a new age. Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the highly popular social networking site. The great Timeline is over - Facebook is changing. 

Women are posting more thought provoking links to compliment their 'Have a Nice Day Kitty Cat' photos and men are learning how to communicate with respect to feminine sensitivities...

Even with these improvements, repetition has taken a toll on Facebook, and on Facebook fans. 

For nearly a decade, Facebook fans have depended on basic algorithms to support their photos, videos, links, and likes - but this quickly became boring. 

While the promised new Timeline allowed users to go back and catch-up on what they missed if they were offline for more than an hour or two, it just wasn't enough to sustain interest levels. 

Reportedly, many users are maintaining their Facebook accounts via shared posts from Pinterest, Twitter, or Tumblr. 

Even with combining networks, very quickly the feeds became rather droll. The same old pics, the same old jokes being shared... Facebook fans cried out for more! 

Just as some Facebook users battled to keep things from changing too much, other Facebook users demanded a new way of interacting, delighting when the news of Facebook Abbey wikied it's way out into Internet forum discussions.   

It would appear that Facebook Abbey is coming upon the scene in a way that will raise both Facebook and Google eyebrows. 

Struggling to maintain users' interest, Facebook prepares to yield to Facebook Abbey, as more and more users post that they are eager to play out virtual roles. 

From stubborn heiresses to gallant Valets, Facebook Abbey will allow users to get some distance from their ordinary posts while acting out scripts in a way only Facebook Abbey users can....

But won't that be intimidating? 

We certainly hope so. 

While Facebook Abbey hasn't yet been released, I have it on several reliable sources that the change will offer users an opportunity to hone their acting skills, to express their most sincere thoughts, and to finally adorn that little Machiavellian mask when faced with meaningless comments to otherwise humorous or seemingly straight-forward status updates. 

True, many of the script posts could amount to a really condensed dose of muddle, but we make of things what we put into them. Most Facebook users are quite capable of reasonable thought. Put a few of the day's weightier moral topics in front of them, and you never know where the script will lead. 

The idea that Facebook should remain stagnant, filled with meaningless status updates and parodies of meaningless updates means it's time for a change.  

If the matter at hand is genuinely something someone cares about, let users act it out with British accents, lavish sets, and in context to some greater historical event. 

Facebook Abbey will finally allow Facebook users the opportunity to enjoy status updates as the drama begins to unfold in our personal news feed. 

As the dramatic temperature of Facebook rises, so should the number of users. 

Funny Water

During our morning explorations on new or interesting concepts, my daughter brought a floating water bridge to my attention:

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When very high voltages are applied to water in two adjacent beakers, they spontaneously form a “water bridge”. It’s a phenomena that, despite being known for more than 100 years, is not completely understood to this day. It is thought that the extreme voltages, in the thousands of volts, are able to pull the positive and negative charges of the water apart in a way that the thread can overcome gravity.

(Above Photo): Infared thermal images of the floating water bridge setup at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. The color scale goes from 24°C (dark purple) to 50°C (bright yellow). The four quadrants show the water bridges with different thickness and temperatures. The bottom left image shows a water bridge immediately before collapse,due to reduced voltage. Source.

Just as in the molecular dynamics of energie I've observed, "bulk (water) molecules do not exhibit any significant preferred orientation along the electric field" (structural changes were observed due to heating or other applied distortions). The electric field surrounds all electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. 

In simpler terms, the water is directionally dependent 

on the electric field. 

Before any deformation can be made, most materials exist in an isotropic state with random grain orientations. Kind of like how people can go with the flow until someone upsets the apple cart. Rather than allowing our biomaterial structure to get distorted in relation to other physical or mechanical properties with differing orientations (such as with heat in the above example), we can consciously choose which crystalline structures to express as well as which ones we allow to affect us (while all energie affects us, we can alter our own trajectory in a way that dispels this energie in favor of other energetic strands). 

Knowing that we can find identical properties in every direction, we can allow ourselves an isotrophic-like approach in which we consciously choose to go with the flow - riding energie that interests or benefits us (and others when they are in the proximity of positive energetic expression). 

Like in the water bridge, there's no reason to change direction when the energie you meet is similar or identical in all measures, sans space-time. Encountering energie in proximal regions allows us to filter out larger, uninteresting particles, which results in greater flow-through and more efficient filtration. 

Filtering what we want to experience by going with the flow is a very pleasant experience. It might look complicated, but in reality, it is merely a property of our physical universe. 

Spontaneous humor occurs when likeminded water bridge-like moments give rise to an equal distribution of molecules with abnormally high electron density. 

Humor affects the magnetic field around us and causes an observed chemical shift. Depending on the amplitude applied to the humorous frequency, I would imagine that someday this energetic exchange could be harnessed into a laser-like device that when directed toward a person would administer a dose of feel-good energie. 

Just imagine it: a funny bone laser being utilized in the field of mental health care. 

Chemistry Jokes

Two guys walk into a bar. One orders H2O, the other orders H2O too. 

Only one them leave.

What do you call a joke based on cobalt, radon, and yttrium? CoRnY 

:D

Do you know the chemical formula for Sodium Hydroxide? NaH. 

hahahahahahahahahahahha

He may have history with her...but he has chemistry with me. 

;D

Did you hear oxygen and potassium went on a date? 

I heard it went OK

Hey Bromine and Boron are calling me.
Don't worry, I'll BrB.

Smarty Pants

As a logician, I used to try, without insulting someone, to shed light on the fallacious statements I considered to be "beautiful insights" (as well as a corrective measure) into resolving the numerous fallacies we commit in language. 

Expressing fallacies detracts from our ability to communicate effectively (such as with equivocation, i.e., slipping between different meanings of a word in an argument that would be valid only if the word were used with the same meaning throughout). 

I quickly learned that no one likes a "smarty pants". 

Especially if that smarty pants is a girl.

இڿڰۣ

Turning to a life of secret writing, I wrote jokes, concealed in poetry, about the human condition. Only, these jokes were so well concealed that no one noticed they were jokes. 

"That awkward moment when someone takes seriously something you were joking about." 

Still, humor, like criticisms, must be concealed (just enough) if they are to be effective. Take for example one of the greatest fallacies in language: 

"I am entitled to my opinion."

People often claim this irrelevant right preemptively, or rather, defensively. However, the fallacy lies in the assumption that when debating a difference of opinion, any retort is somehow a satisfactory reply to another's objections, when, in fact, it is often times completely irrelevant. 

"That awkward moment when you're enjoying a debate with someone and they unknowingly confuse the topic and begin arguing a different subject thinking it is a valid retort to the original argument."

If you have a sense of humor, these occurrences can seem pretty funny. When I hear something funny - I laugh. 

I (also) quickly learned that laughing while under the pretense of arguing or debating is unadvisable. Others consider it insulting. 

I'd like to think laughing is a great way to end a fight that you're not committed to, but not everyone shares my opinion. 

Example: 

I might disagree with someone regarding what humor is - and what it is NOT - but until I, or this other hypothetical person, can prove the efficacy of our claims, which must be well-supported by evidence (this is precisely what it means to be entitled to an opinion), our entitlement is not yet known. 

In this case, we do not yet know who is entitled to their opinion because we don't yet know who is right (hint: I am right. Insults are not humor, they are merely insults concealed within a comedic device). 

The challenge lies in respectfully - and humorously - pointing out fallacies in a way that is beneficial to others, respectful to ourselves, and entertaining for everyone involved. 

Therein lies the trick in writing humor: 

Saying what you want to say without saying it. 

இڿڰۣ

Morning Coffee

Before my morning coffee....

How I feel while waiting for the water to heat up...

My non-coffee enhanced thoughts about the morning...

After the first few sips...

Coffee induced humor...

After my morning coffee...

After my 2nd cup of coffee life starts to make sense...

Before (Reality) and After (Fantasy) Coffee

After my 3rd cup of coffee...

Fully loaded...

Oneliners

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.

My blood type is coffee.

On the eighth day God created coffee.

I make serious coffee - so strong it wakes up the neighbors!

Coffee, the 100% natural replacement for sleep!

Instant human: Add coffee.

A morning without coffee is like sleep.

Stealing someone's coffee is called mugging.

Drinking too much coffee can cause a latte problems. 

The concession stand at the circus had very good coffee. It was the greatest joe on earth! 

Selling coffee has its perks.

I went out for drinks with a Matador the other day. I had tea, he had café au lait! 

Much Ado About Funniness

Benedict. O Lolly, sir, here's a joke I love not! I cannot endure my Lady's jests.

Exit.

D. Pedro. Come, lady, come, you have lost the laugh of Signior Benedict. 

Beatrice. Indeed, my lord, he lent it to me awhile, and I gave him use for it, a double laugh for his single one. Laugh, once before he won it of me with false laughter, therefore your grace may well say I have lost my audience. 

[Parody II.i.257-64]

Moore Smith, Venice

1905 Sesta esposizione Internazionale d'artedella Citt. di Venezia

(known today as the Venice Biennale)

Shakespeare imbued Much Ado About Nothing with Rosalind's unequalled ravening intelligence and Falstaff's primal exuberance and cognitive power. Their mastery over prose, their ambivalence, the peculiar mark of Hal's psyche, means something very different for Beatrice and Benedick, the amiably comic nihilists of this play. 

Nietzscheans no doubt delight while their wit defends itself against farcical nothingness. They make much ado about funny nothingness because they know that funniness will come of little funny nothings, and so they jest again. 

The only thing more superficial than the formalistic skirmish called "war" as the backdrop of the play is the expression of love... 

for this play is a play of nihilistic wit - (writing this play was) the welcomed break Shakespeare gave himself after penning the rejection of Falstaff in Henry IV, Part Two, but before writing Hal's equivocal triumph in Henry Vth.

Tragedy requires development, comedy needs immediacy, it unfolds while we watch.

Funny Last Words

"I intend to live forever, or die trying."

~Groucho Marx, d. 1977

"I am about to - or I am going to - die: either expression is correct."

~Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian. d. 1702

"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something." 

~Francisco ("Pancho") Villa, d. 1923

"Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies."

(Attributed to) Voltaire, when asked by a priest to renounce Satan, d. 1778

"A truck!"

~Comedian Emo Phillips's grandfather.

"I owe Asclepius a rooster."

~Socrates, d. 399 BCE

"I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, and apostles." 

~Niccolò Machiavelli, d. 1527

"I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring.

~Richard Feynman, d. 1988