Friendship and Humor

Last night I was watching some episodes of the second season of Home Movies and during the commentary track creator and star Brendon Small (see cool things to your right) made a comment about how, to him, some of the most intimate moments in life are just when two people can talk about nothing of real importance and be on the same page. I think the key to this intimacy is a shared sense of humor. When I watch something that I think is funny, like very funny, I’m usually the only one in the room that gets that particular joke.

A big part of what makes these laugh out loud (Or high pitched yelp as I am want to do when I’m most amused) moments is that I see something in the joke that connects me to the writer; to the origin of that piece of humor. Sometimes it is not as simple as my love for the meta or hyper-ironic use of a pun, still there is usually something there in the complexity of the extrapolated background story that results in such a joke. To me it is funny if I can feel attached to the writers of that joke; if I can share (vicariously participate) in that intimate moment where that piece of funny was elucidated.

This is why I value humor so much in my personal life. I think it is the best way for people to connect as humans beyond the platitudes of political rhetoric and the false indentities of cultural and sociological stereotyping. As Bob Ross says everytime he finishes painting one of his “happy little trees” and starts to paint another one: “Let’s just give him a friend … it’s one of the most important things in life to have a friend.”