Humor and Humiliation (Brian Katcher)

 So this month's theme is embarrassment, or, barring that, humor. Well, I've already used this venue to share my most humiliating memory, so I guess I'll talk about being funny.

My wife and I recently began streaming old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Mr. Data, the android, is always attempting to understand human emotion and behavior. In one episode, in an attempt to comprehend comedy, tries to make his friends laugh. Of course, his jokes fail miserably, though he inadvertently does make people laugh, just by sharing his observations.

Data asks his crewmates to explain humor to him, but it's simply a concept that you can't define. There's no way to quantify humor. In desperation, Data goes to the holodeck and gets Joe Piscopo to mentor him. This, of course, fails miserably. Data's quest to be funny continues.

But the question remains, just what makes something funny? I dunno. Maybe Aristotle knew, but his works got burned by that crazy monk in that Umburto Eco novel.

I'll leave you with this thought. For Christmas this year, I got a dad joke button as a gag gift. My students can't get enough of it. Though I'm sure they only understand one joke in three, especially the kindergarners.

"I was at the grocery store and this guy started throwing cheese and yogurt at me. How dairy!"

HA HA HA! He was throwing cheese!