‘Joke only’

Which is worse: a joke told twice over to the same person or one with a missing punch line? I would say, neither. One cannot be worse than the other. Both are unpardonable.

Telling jokes has become one of the Filipinos’ favorite pastimes. We all love to laugh, in good times and bad. But mostly during bad times. It’s one of our coping mechanisms.

And what makes us laugh? Almost anything and everything. Feebly humorous or not, we simply burst into laughter at the slightest or no provocation at all. Humor has seen us hurdle rough times; even a bloodless revolution.

It becomes an emotional crutch when life’s challenges appear to be seemingly insurmountable. However, the false hope that a problem would go away if we just laugh it off compounds the situation unwittingly. Because our inclination to take things ever so lightly has proven to be a bane at times. Somehow it gives the impression that we do not address matters of import seriously enough.

Nevertheless, even under the most trying conditions, Filipinos still find time to banter. A former columnist of the Inquirer recalled that throughout their incarceration during martial law, he and his fellow detainees would exchange jokes. Perhaps to fill in the idle hours?

A historian once wrote, “When humor is correctly brought in a classroom or lecture hall, it maintains interest.” How true. Haven’t we listened intently to church homilies when interspersed with jokes? An effective tool indeed to keep the parishioners focused on the Mass.

Punsters seem to tickle our funny bones without really trying.  Comedians, like the fabled Bob Hope with his one-liners, have made a serious business out of making people laugh. They make a living out of cracking jokes just about everyone and everything.  Nothing and nobody is spared and sacred, not even the Pope.

Some of the jokes we hear are puns. The dictionary defines “pun” as the “humorous use of a word to suggest different meanings, or of the same sound and different meanings.” This wordplay has been employed deftly by Sir Winston Churchill, one of the peerless statesmen that the world has ever seen, in his quotable quotes; and by the prodigious dramatist of all time, William Shakespeare, in a number of his plays.

Shakespeare, it is said, loved the use of pun which is believed to be among his most obvious humorous talents. All one has to do is read his comedic plays and find them replete with brainy witticisms. The writer par excellence once wrote, “Better be a witty fool than a foolish wit.”

On the other hand, known for his wry humor and wicked wit, Churchill was quoted to have declared: “Eating my words has never given me indigestion.” Truly, a master of repartee, if I have ever come across one.

With the advent of the internet, jokes are easily passed on and accessed. In my case, not a day goes by when I don’t get “my supply” from relatives and friends to tickle my funny bones. Some are downright hilarious and are worth repeating (binabalik-balikan) or worth sharing with joke lovers like me.

Here are a few of my all-time favorite witticisms (with apologies to those who might feel slighted unintentionally).

A hair dressing salon sign says, “If your hair is not becoming to you, you should be coming to us.” At a dental clinic, the advertisement reads: “Be true to your teeth or they will be false to you.” Any way you read it, the messages are loud and clear to me.

One florist shop calls itself “Petal Attraction.” Perhaps a take from the movie, “Fatal Attraction”?  A dead give away: “Home service for dog grooming,” so the sign goes at Vanity Fur. I guess even the little furry one’s vainness has to be indulged.

With the proliferation of water refilling stations, prospective operators are hard put coming up with catchy names for recall. Is “Johnny Water,” catchy enough? And what about “Goto Haven”? When you partake of their product, do you find yourself in paradise? Just asking. The list could go on, ad infinitum. Like multivitamins, we get our daily dose of puns and malapropisms.

Trust the Filipinos’ ingenuity. Give them a word and they can spin as many derivatives from it as their creative juices would allow. The range of their humor can go from witty to hilarious, perverse, slapstick, risque, irreverent and even to downright gutter. Thus, comedians are afforded an array of topics to choose from. The problem lies in the when, where and whom to dish it out.

I hail from a clan of practical jokers. I take delight from good, real funny and witty jokes. In fact, I have included in my to-do bucket list to come up with my own collection of bon mots. I revel in the company of people with a fantastic sense of humor and whose conversations are punctuated with sparkling wit. I must say not everyone can dish out a good joke with a straight face. It takes talent to deliver the punch line without mangling the joke or without sounding offensive.

How often have we heard the maxim “Laughter is the best medicine”? That a 15-minute of laughter a day is good for the heart?

A research on the health benefits of humor came out with positive results. It has “been found that fun and laughter are not only effective with patients themselves but with their families and hospital staff as well.” A word of caution though: Do not overdo it.  Or else, you might literally “die laughing,” as the expression goes.

On second thought, what better way to go than to leave this earth laughing all the way to heaven—or wherever the long and narrow path leads us? Hopefully not where there’s “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Joke only.

Romana F. Gella, 70, relishes with gusto every good joke that comes her way.