Are LOL and smile emoticons replacing our laughter?
I have never been able to tell jokes, sometimes because I don’t remember them and often because I botch the punch line. I accept this shortcoming. However, I enjoy a good joke and love to laugh. My admiration for good tellers of jokes is boundless.
Maybe that’s why I loved watching Groucho Marx, Red Skelton, Red Buttons and George Gobel on early television, along with “I Love Lucy,” Phyllis Diller, Ann Southern on “My Favorite Secretary,” Gale Storm on “My Little Margie” “Private Secretary” starring Ann Southern and Eve Arden on “Our Miss Brooks.” Most of these comediennes had begun their big screen careers as singers, dancers and femme fatales. But when television was in its infancy, the funniest of the WWII pin-up girls made their successful transitions to the small screens.
In my early- and middleadult years, we never missed the irreverent humor of George Carlin, any time he had a special or was a guest on late night TV, but the pioneer funny man Don Rickles was never a favorite because his humor often seemed cruel. I felt the same way about some of today’s comics who use sexist humor, like we saw on the Jackie Gleason Show. I was too young to know what to call it, but I didn’t like the way he treated his poor wife, Alice. To me, that show was never funny.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I noticed people weren’t telling jokes as much. Maybe it was U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Later, after 9-11, I began to notice people saying, “Oh, that was funny,” instead of laughing. That joke response soon dwindled down to “Funny.”
With the advent of computers, email, cell phones and texting, you may have figured out we’re laughing less and relying a lot more on “LOL” or punching in a laughing emoticon, once known as a “smiley face.”
The writer William Thackeray explained, “A good laugh is sunshine in the house.” I would think this is yet another reason God made kids… or us flawed human beings. The laughable moments of childhood make good memories to share at holiday tables.
Science tells us when we laugh, it lowers our blood pressure, reduces stress hormones and improves flexibility. A good laugh also increases the circulation of antibodies in the bloodstream, making us more resistant to infections.
Laughter is also good for the soul. It brings people – sometimes strangers – closer together and this often offers us a moment of grace. In this moment, we also may realize that we worry about silly things and take ourselves too seriously. Don’t believe it? The next time you’re in an argument, start laughing. Once we begin to laugh, anger seems to disappear.
Laughter helps us stay positive and keeps things in perspective. Like the country-western songs go, “My partner left me, took Granddaddy’s guitar and my pick-up truck, stole my furniture, ran over my old dog and my hemorrhoids are acting up.”
If you take time to laugh about it, you realize things aren’t as bad as they seem.
During quarantine, I found a website that sent daily jokes to my computer. Some are too corny to share, but most are clever. Several times a week, I would tell these jokes to my family. Of course, I was ready for their eyerolls and their looks of disdain, but it was fun to see their reactions and so, I continued.
I may not be able to tell jokes, but as a young physician once told me, a good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything. “Laughter,” he added, “is the best medicine, but if you find yourself laughing for no reason, you need medicine.” LOL.