Perhaps it's just a function of getting *old* or maybe it comes with being a parent (although I highly doubt the latter), but as I'm going along here I don't think I get quite the same reactions to my humor that I used to.
It's possible the medley of prescribed drugs have an effect, but if drugs are the cause than please explain the large number of (formerly) humorous SNL alumni that were able to coke away their futures and remain ridiculous to large numbers of people? Oh sure... a lot of them ended up dead (or wished in hindsight they were - see Eddie Murphy Raw - ie... red leather jumpsuit), but I'm not one to point fingers at little magic happy pills. Especially if Nancy Reagan told us all not to take them, and then we preceded to have an entire generation drugged up by family physicians more than happy to dump Prozac.
No... I'm convinced my humor issues are entirely based on my current audiences.
1 - My wife.
Married 8 years now, been together longer than that, has the "yes, you think you're funny but you are not and I'm pretending to be interested" eyebrow down pat. I'm certain that this is a proportion that is directly related to the amount of time of marriage.
2 - My mother-in-law.
Sadly, I had many many years of practice with my prior audience (my parents) and knew what they found funny. This tended to involve sarcasm and topical rants on current events. Unfortunately, this is not the case with my MIL. Its not that she doesn't have a sense of humor, it's just that most of the time it involves something that is only funny to her. Sarcasm gets winged in her presence and she parries and dodges like she's friggin Neo in the Matrix.
3 - My son.
Currently at the age where he knows that things he does is sure to elicit a response, he knows that he's funny! Or at least is always treated as such, to prevent adult insanity/screaming at the poor kid. But the best part is the eye roll. Similar to the adult eyebrow, this involves him rolling his little eyes at me and going "Daaaaaad", I'm fairly sure this is preceding the "I don't want to be seen with this crazy old man in public, but hope he will give me more money" stage.
Maybe I just need to talk to/at the cats more.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
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