written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Friday 12 August 2011

The truth is a lemon meringue!


I may not be particularly funny, but I enjoy a good laugh, the more random the better. I have no idea what it takes to make me laugh until it does, but I think the key so they say is the unexpected.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, I’m pretty juvenile. I love children’s books, and have the same tastes as my nine year old. It’s not strictly poetry but I’d like to share something from my favourite series of books at the moment, the Mr Gum series by Andy Stanton. This is from ‘You’re a bad man Mr Gum!’ For context I’ll include a little of the chapter;



Mr Gum kept his Garden kept his garden so tidy that it was the prettiest, floweriest, gardeniest garden in the whole of Lamonic Bibber. Here is how amazing it was:


Think of a number
between one and ten.

Multiply that
Number by five.

Add on three
Hundred and fifty.

Take away eleven.

Throw all of those
numbers away.

Now think of an
amazing garden.


Now that is what makes me chuckle. it's stupid, but clever. I like that.

I guess humour is subjective, and this is mine, because it’s the only one I can explain really.The ending was something I didn't expect, so made me laugh. Maybe it made you laugh, and you should go and get a copy of Mr Gum immediately because you'd love it.

On the flip side I have a darker side which finds awful things funny, something I developed to deal with hard times.

If you don’t laugh at it, it’s going to hurt you, badly. So laugh, get rid of the emotion by turning hurt into laughter. One of the hardest yet funniest times of my life was my fathers funeral strangely enough, comedy can be used as a tool to help you through the most difficult times by highlighting how absurd and unfair life can be.

This works for me and I understand black humour and enjoy it immensely. Not everyone deals with things that way though, we’re all different. We're not trying to be offensive, it's just our way. What you may find funny I may not, what I find funny could either make you think I am a childish cretin or an evil, evil soul. But it’s ok. I find that funny too.

2 comments:

Ashley Lister said...

I remember you mentioning Mr Gum in a class last term. I still have to find a copy.

And I always enjoyed the gallows humour of laughing at funerals. Admittedly, it was one of the reasons I was fired from my job working with a funeral director - but that's another story...

Great post,

Ash

Standard said...

Thanks Lindsay, as a complete maths eeejit I actually strived to work out those numbers and had a chuckle at the end (in a CURSE YOOOOOOOU!!) kind of way. You're definitley not a childish cretin so welcome to the evil, evil soul club; we've been expecting you ;)