Warning: Contains Humour

A piece of string walks into a restaurant. The waiter says to him: ‘Oi, we don’t serve your kind in here!’ So the piece of string walks back out. He twists himself round a bit, and rubs himself on the wall until a few strands are loose, then walks back into the restaurant. ‘Ere,’ says the waiter, ‘are you that piece of string I just kicked out?’ ‘No,’ says the piece of string, ‘I’m a frayed knot.’

How did that make you feel? Did you laugh? Did you groan?
Hopefully you laughed. Laughter has been medically proven to be good for you. A belly-laugh relieves stress and apparently can even reduce blood pressure. Being able to make people laugh is a gift – without a doubt. But attempts at humour can also cause friction in friendships and families, particularly if one person ‘always’ makes a joke of things other people are concerned about. Seeing the funny side can give us some perspective on life. And there are times when we all need to see the ‘funny side’ and not take ourselves too seriously. But sometimes humour can be used to do people down. It can alienate people and provoke them to extreme behaviour. Much childhood bullying is verbal ‘teasing’. In situations where young people react violently – either to themselves or to others – the ‘final straw’ is often a joke or humorous comment.

Embarrassment

It’s true to say that sometimes parents ‘poke fun’ at their kids. Some teasing is probably okay, but there are some areas which should perhaps be declared ‘off-limits’. Boyfriends or girlfriends and teenage crushes are areas many young people feel incredibly embarrassed about. So if they get teased about that sort of thing, it’s not surprising that parents complain that their kids don’t tell them anything! So humour is one of those areas in life where we need to tread carefully. We need to make a distinction between ‘good’ humour and ‘bad’ humour – do our jokes make everyone laugh and feel better, or do they make other people feel worse? As with many things, most of that answer lies in your motivation. What are your reasons for making a joke? You can tell a joke to put other people at their ease, to underline an important point, or to include people in the group. Or you can tell a joke to exclude someone, ridicule them, make light of another person’s troubles, or get attention.

Taken from Care for the Family’s newsletter and used with permission. To sign up for the Care for the Family newsletter see www.careforthefamily.org