"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know" - G. Marx

Its no secret that I love a good laugh, and that I love to have that good laugh often. Life is a whole lot easier to enjoy if you do it laughing. I know not everything is a joke....and there is a time for laughter and a time to be serious. But, to me, those times to be serious should be few and far between.

Most of my closest friends are either good jokers or good laughers. For example, my buddy Chris is one of the funniest people I know. And his laugh is in the John Candy family of laughs. Same goes for Pik and Ed. I go visit them at work, and walk away feeling better. Even on those crap days when it feels like everything I do is wrong...and someone is there to point that fact out.

By now you are saying, "That's great, WHW...but what is your point here?" My point is, I know a lot of people who are going through some tough times. These are very good people trying to make it through some incredibly hard, stressful issues. To my friends out there who are feeling down, wondering why life seems to be piling on to you, I say,

"You are not alone. I am here to help you whenever you need it. I will offer up that ear for you to pour your thoughts and frustrations into. Even if we are miles apart. Email me. Call me. However, please be warned. I will look for ways to sneak my prefered medicine to you. I will quietly look for a chance to make you laugh a little. Make you chuckle. Make you smile. It has amazing medicinal qualities."

Which brings me to tonight's antidote for the the bummed. Some random thoughts/observations on humor....

1. Just finished watching "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle". Thanks to BW for the suggestion to watch it. It is, as you might guess, silly. But I did laugh out loud while watching it. Big WHW thumbs up. The Extreme music is hilarious.
2. YouTube is a wonderful thing. For some reason I went looking for Sam Kinison clips the other day. Some of his stand up was side splitting. What is it about his scream that makes me laugh? And the clip from "Back To School" (you know...."Say It!!!! Say It!!!!") is great.
3. I'm not a big Family Guy fan...but there are clips from that show that are beautiful.
4. I used to be a huge Simpsons fan. Then, time commitments to kid's activities took me away from the weekly viewing of the show. I do have several of the early seasons on DVD..and they still crack me up. Favorite character: Ralph Wiggum, who had such quotes as "Me fail English? That's unpossible. ", "Hi, Super Nintendo Chalmers!", "My cat's breath smells like cat food.", and "Even my boogers are spicy!"
5. Mel Brooks made some of my favorite movies.
6. How can cartoons made 50, 60, even 70 years ago still be so dang funny??? The Looney Tunes stand the test of time. My personal favorite (which I recently found on a $1.00 DVD at Walmart), "A Tale Of Two Kitties", starring Tweety and two cats named Babbitt and Catstello.
7. One late night, as I looked for things to do other than the work I was supposed to be doing, I decided to put together my list of the funniest people/acts (in my humble opinion) . Here are my top five (actually, six. I have a list of 50.....) :

6. Cheech and Chong

5. Rodney Dangerfield

4. Eddie Murphy

3. Steve Martin

2. Jerry Seinfeld

1. The Marx Brothers

Duck Soup, Animal Crackers, A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races, Horse Feathers.