Tell Us About 11.2023: Laughter

Morning glories!  This month my Tell Us About (TUA) co-hosts are getting together to write to Gail’s theme choice – laughter.  This was tougher than I dreamed it would be.  Made several attempts at writing about laughter from different angles before deciding to show you what makes me laugh, rather than just telling you.

Tell Us About

 

Are you new to the Tell Us About (TUA) series?  Let me tell you about it!!  TUA is a global writing challenge where bloggers from all around the planet(!!) respond to a different prompt on the third Thursday of each month.  I joined the group about 5 months ago and have so appreciated the invite to do so, and the opportunities to do some creative writing on my blog.  You can find my other TUA posts here:

Tell Us About –

• Play
• Scent
• Gardens and Gardening
• Ways I’m a Curiosity
• Travel
• Imagination
• my theme choice for September, Legacy
• Hometowns

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Tell Us About 11.2023: Laughter

 

 

Each month we are asked to provide a summary of our upcoming TUA post to the other hosts of the Tell Us About series.  My summary for this post read:

 

Leslie loves to laugh, or cackle as her Prince Charming describes it.  And nothing makes her cackle more than the loves of her life.

 

However, I am not very good at laughing at myself.  I think because the mistakes I make, times when I say the wrong thing, the occasional Freudian slip, or the mispronunciation or use of the wrong word, all embarrass me.  And I can be clumsy – more so these days than ever before. A slip or trip can almost bring me to tears (with fear for the potential of breaking a hip).  Would love to be able chuckle at those times but not very successful at doing so.

So, what does make me laugh?  As I do in so many of my other posts, I was planning to relate the way my loved ones make me laugh.  As you will read below, I stuck to that plan.  But as I sat to down to consider what tickles my funny bone, makes me ROTFL or LOL, I realized that my kitties, many of the bloggers I follow, and a couple of crazy folks on IG also make me laugh.

Here are a few things that have turned my giggle box upside down lately.

My Loved Ones

 

My family makes me laugh.  The grandbabies are all funny in their own ways.  Right now, Cami, the 3-year-old, probably takes the cake with her expressions and mispronunciation of common words.  Declan, almost 2, can be very serious one minute and goofy the next, playing hide and seek with his silverware at dinner.  Cady, 13 and Cia, 7, have outgrown the silly stage and are more sweet than funny.

My daughters and my sister, Valerie, really make me laugh.  At times, loud guffaws of laughter.  Brennyn and Valerie are sarcastic and have a dry sense of humor.  Lauren and I are sillier.

PC is very quick.  He can turn anything into joke.  I wish I could think that fast.  Sometimes I struggle ‘getting’ the point of jokes or riddles.  But he is very clever and makes me laugh every day. He has adopted some of the crazy make-believe words my girls, and now their children, use.  Whenever he says ‘shaw-shee’ instead of horsie (or horse, like most men would say), I laugh and love him a little more.

My Mom

 

Mom was funny and said the darnedest things.  Many of her comments that made me laugh most came from her Ozark Mountain upbringing and expressions.  One of my favorites was something she said when encountering an unfortunate looking person.  Mom would say ‘They can’t help it if they’re ugly but they could stay at home.’  And there were additional versions of that…  ‘…they could put a pillowcase over their head.’  Or ‘…they could put a sack over their head.’  Really awful, I know.  But so funny when she would say it.

Lauren found a partial list of her expressions and sent me a picture of it last night.  Oh, Mom.  One that my sister and I say to each other all the time is ‘It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.’  And depending on the day, she might add, ‘And I’m beginning to weaken.’

Movies

 

We rented a theater to watch “Barbie” this summer.  All of us together with the exception of Lauren’s husband who had to work that day.  I thought the movie was really cute but I was so enchanted by my 4 grandchildren, I didn’t see a whole lot of it.  My sister and I went to see it together in September when I visited her.  We both laughed out loud.  I might have snorted.

 

Steve Martin’s “The Jerk” still makes me laugh.  All of us quote lines from the movie.  And when I was in Tennessee, Valerie reenacted the scene where Martin discovers he’s in the phone book for the first time.  I chortled.  Then recorded her for the whole family to enjoy.

 

 

“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” with John Candy and Steve Martin is also hilarious, in the collective opinion of my whole family. And poignant, at the same time.  One of the funniest scenes, that has me ROTFL-ing every time I watch it is the ‘going the wrong way scene’ below.  So. Silly.

 

 

These days there aren’t silly, crazy fun movies.  Everything is violent, bloody horror, or super sexual.

Commercials

 

Retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning went to the University of Tennessee just like I did, only a few years later!!  I loved watching him play for the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos.  And now I love watching him in commercials.  Some of them for Nationwide Insurance with country music star, Brad Paisley.

 

Or this insurance commercial with NFL quarterback Patrick Mahommes and Jake from State Farm.

 

What is it about insurance commercials that I find LOL funny?

Social Media

 

• My sister – but of course – finds some silly things and shares them on Facebook.  Example:

 

• Brennyn sent this earlier in the week.  She remembers all the years I set baskets of her stuff and her sister’s on the stairs for them to take up to their rooms.  Only to watch them walk right by said baskets night after night after night.  Real life stuff.  That can make me laugh til I am crying.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Betches Media (@betches)

 

• And Lauren sent the graphic below.  As my mother would say, “More truth than poetry.”

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Shitheadsteve (@shitheadsteve)

 

• Finally, there are the folks I follow on Instagram that start my mornings off with a belly laugh.  One of my favorites is comedian jesus_nalgas.  This could easily be Lauren or me in Target at Halloween.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jesus. (@jesus_nalgas)

 

• Hollywood_gengen pokes great fun at the ‘hood’ classroom and daycare teachers.  Love how she struggles with the clap all teachers use to get their students’ attention.  That is so me.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by HollywoodGenGen (@hollywood_gengen)

 

• The Real FitFam El Paso is the first place I go on Instagram.  They bring us all things EP…traffic updates, notifications about crime, accidents, the situation on the border.  But they also make me laugh.  Fun.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FitFam El Paso (@therealfitfamelpaso)

This was a surprisingly hard post for me to write.  I started searching for photos of the grandbabies that are giggle-worthy.  But there were sooooo many!!  How to narrow it to a few.  So, I nixed that idea, and just summarized the ways they make me laugh.  But I have to leave you with a few parting shots.

 

 

 

Your Turn

 

What makes YOU laugh?  Do you consider yourself funny?  I would say I am goofier rather than funny or humorous.  Anxious to see what my co-hosts have written about laughter in their lives?  So am I.  Let’s find out…

• Marsha who blogs at Marsha in the Middle, once again goes back to her school days and tells tales on her friends.  Will you laugh until you cry?  Or, will you shake your head at such silliness?
• Debbie at Deb’s World shares personal stories of laughter and the importance of being able to laugh at yourself. Plus the power of a smile.
• Gail at Is This Mutton wonders why so little on TV is funny these days, and why we seldom see older women making us laugh.

And…

• The Frugal Shopper, Penny, began writing a review of fun television that made her laugh and then wandered through several definitions of laughter concluding that laughter was a very healthy thing to do.
• From Mary Katherine at MK’s Adventures in Style loves a good belly laugh, and writes about what has given her good ones over the years.
• In Suzy at The Grey Brunette’s reflection on laughter, she dishes on her favourite TV comedies, applauds hubby Michael’s distinctive British humour, and introduces the quirky personalities of pals Sarah and Laura, alongside the charming antics of her furry companions, Myrtle, Shannon, Sadie, and Luna. 
• Sue from Women Living Well After 50 looks at the importance of laughter & feeling connected for a healthy lifestyle after 50.

This has been a hectic week.  I am looking forward to a quiet weekend.  Hope to get the house whipped into shape for Thanksgiving.  What do you have planned?

Thank you for stopping by to spend a little time here with me.  Hope you’ve been reminded of some things that bring laughter to your life.

Hugs and kisses,