Nothing is Funny Out of Context

Sometimes it's the little things in life that get you through the day.  It could be a smile from a loved one, a giggle from a child, a blush from a co-worker when they finally get your double entendre, or the uncontrollable laughter over something that catches you off guard.  The last is my favorite.

The best part about those moments is that they often lead to inside jokes that cannot be explained no matter how hard you try.  Often times the situation alone isn't that funny and retelling it only highlights that fact.  I can distinctly remember one night many moons ago, FCJ, Cap't Punc. and I were watching TV when a particular commercial came on interrupting our show.  I'm not sure what specific conditions were present that caused us to laugh so hard that we couldn't breath, wheezing out tiny squeals as we doubled over nearly passing out from lack of oxygen. It may have been the time of night, we didn't often get to stay up until midnight so in our defense we were quite tired and obviously not thinking straight. What sent us into a teary eyed fit of giggles? A simple commercial that started off with an old man proudly stating "I have gas." I'm not even sure what the rest of the commercial was about.

Years later FCJ and I were killing time while watching Robot Chicken.  Some of the skits were funny, most were ...meh, but one just ….caught us by surprise.  The skit starts with a Japanese guy walking into a room whilst singing a song, in Japanese. He sits down, takes off his coat and hangs it up, takes out a kimono and puts in on, and takes off first on shoe, then the other.  At the exact same time we both recognize the song and the parody.  It was the opening sequence to Mr. Rogers Neighborhood ...in Japanese.  Doesn't sound too funny?  Looking back on it now, it isn't really that funny but we both lost our minds; laughing so hard that we couldn't speak for several minutes.  The interesting thing is that we lost control well before the punch line of the skit.

 I had a similar experience tonight.  I'm not sure if I should attribute this latest episode to a lack of sleep, increased stress levels at work, or the insanity that is the daily homework battles with the Bibliochildren.  I was calmly lurking through the comments of a Reddit post about a guy cutting a watermelon in 21 seconds.  There was the normal discussions about how sharp the knife was, if that glove he was wearing was actually effective against a "real" knife ( I assumed they were referring to the Paul Hogan variety), and semi serious sidebar discussions about how to debone a wild turkey. Then someone posted a link to this video.  I lost it.  Then I tried to regain my composure and failed, falling into another fit of giggles.

It's a good thing Bibliowife didn't witness the event.  I'm not sure she would have understood….and she already thinks I'm strange.

~Bibliotender