There may be a few of you who are still alive that may remember the British comedy team named Monty Python. They performed their hilariously stupid comedy sketches some years ago, back when the authorities allowed us to laugh freely without arrest or public ridicule for our inappropriate guffaws. Of course, I was just a wee little lad back then, having barely graduated from crawling to walking, and i am sure you believe this right? Anyway, I watched the Monty Python hour every Friday night, I think, about 8 pm, when my parents were ignoring me and doing whatever they do upstairs.

Although I was quite young, I remember their show was a highlight of my Friday nights.  My parents heard me downstairs, screaming with laughter for a full hour, then eventually, they would occasionally go downstairs to check on me, or maybe my dad just wanted to grab a beer from the downstairs refrigerator. I would be found sprawled out on the floor, screaming uncontrollably with hilarity, sometimes pounding my fists on the rug, as if pounding the floor would save me from death from laughter by punishing the floor.

I am not sure when it happened, but perhaps one of my parents sat for thirty seconds watching a Python skit to see what was so funny, didn’t laugh, then went upstairs, never to come down again on a Friday night, disgusted with such stupid silliness invading my young brain. But thankfully, they did not banish me from this event, and let me laugh for an hour alone.  Then, after this was over, I stayed up later to watch Bennie Hill, and of course, that show was much more risqué, but still hilarious, and I had to keep glancing at the stairways to see if they would catch me watching such a forbidden show, but thankfully, they went to bed early.

As far as Bennie Hill, we can discuss that separately, but of course it was not porn, but funny skits often involving scantily clad women and a dirty old man, doing stupid things.  Of course, this is completely illegal now, in the way it treated women, but now, we must get back to Python.

Some of you may remember, the Python crew made some movies also, including The Holy Grail and A Fish Called Wanda. Some of their famous skits included You Never Expect the Spanish Inquisition, The Parrot, The Ministry of Silly Walks and many more.  After each scene, there were stupid cartons and then the narrator would say in his haughty British tone: And Now for Something Completely Different.

So, the reader may ask, “Why did you make me read all this, and what is the point?”

Ok, you want the point?  Here it is:  We need more silliness and humor in our lives.

The Wuhan virus has invaded the world with much devastation, death and hardship and we are now as a society, much more serious, infected if not with the virus, but also with bad moods and sour thoughts about what is next.  Seems we don’t smile as much, and I certainly don’t see young people falling to the floor laughing anymore.  In fact, if they do laugh, they are investigated by the WOKE mob to see if they laughed at something that was not on the list of laughable subjects (and this list was in fact, written in invisible ink that no one was allowed to read).  The investigation then proceeds, without justification or rebuttal defense, and the unfortunate laugher is banished from society, or his or her job.

Don’t get me wrong.  It is important to be serious, when there are serious subjects at hand, and you should be serious on your job, and do it well, and be serious in Church and all that.  But damn, every chance you get, you need to figure out a way to laugh so much your belly jiggles up and down, or if you don’t have a belly, and own six-pack abs, then, you start wheezing and can’t catch your breath.

I know when to be serious, and I am certainly serious in the work I do in medicine.  However, there are times, that I wet my finger, put it to the wind and see if the over-worked staff are ready to receive a chuckle or too, and if the conditions are right, or even if they are not right, I try to make the staff laugh, to unload their stress a little.  Usually though, it is self-deprecating humor. For example, someone may ask if I had a good night on call or not, and I will reply, “How is my hair? Does it answer your question?”  Or, if things are busy and hectic and folks are asking me to do multiple things at once, I may say, “Good thing I am young.”   That often brings a laugh or two.

I don’t want to share any more of these secret but effective stress reducing comments, because well, they are copyrighted, and locked in a vault somewhere under a secret mountain, guarded closely by cute, but vicious, attack bunnies.

We need to laugh a little more, and act silly at times and take each other, and life, a little less seriously, when we can, even if it is not written in the legal list of laughable subjects. Take a risk sometimes, and who knows, you may feel better and your heart will too.

© SRCarson 2022