"Humanity has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century, but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
Mark Twain
"A day without laughter is a day wasted."
Charlie Chaplin
I could go on and on with the quotes related to laughter. Of course, everyone knows the saying "Laughter is the best medicine" of which the source is quite murky. From my search I found this:
"The same idea is found in Proverbs 17:22, ‘A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
© 2006
Enough of the quotes.
I think we can all agree that laughter truly lifts the spirit. Even when we are experiencing hard times, a joke or funny anecdote can be a healing salve for the heart and soul. I've always been fascinated by people who are able to get on stage and lay it out there for a laugh. I don't know that I could do it but luckily in my line of work it's a bit similar. I'm often cutting up with my guests and trying to make their time with me more enjoyable and relaxing. It has the added benefit of making my job seem less like actual work.
I recently watched a Netflix comedy special that was quite cathartic. Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette" is definitely one to watch. It's a very thought provoking stand up routine but the reason I mention it specifically is because of one bit she touched on that struck me deeply. To paraphrase what she said, she didn't want to continue doing standup because of the self-deprecating humor which is akin to self abuse. I was awestruck since so often what we find humor in is at the expense of someone else and most often ourselves. While it's truly important to laugh we must remember to be kind and you should stand up and say it's not okay when it's not kind.
What do you think?
Comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to the dialogue and try to respond to all. As always, thanks for reading.
Peace and laughter to all!
Pixabay
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Laughter is a good medicine to the soul. We just need to surround ourselves with people who make us laugh and not those who do otherwise
Very true but sometimes you can't help but to interact with negativity and you need to be able to shield yourself
I like the positive attitude of your post, I like to smile even if i have some problems. :)
I think it helps make the problems seem smaller
whaa? you quoted my fav thinker ... mark twain and the bible?! whoa just heard he was a plagiarist the other day LOL are you really a witty waiter? thats cooool!! :)
interesting question too, i was watching a bad comedy (partially) / zombie movie and it was a bad one too. there was an armless woman who was getting joked about and they had her try to pick up keys during a whole skit. i felt horrible and did not find it funny at all. i know some may, and i dunno i just thought how is this empowering to women in her situation?
just me tho, and maybe she really wanted the exposure and acting part ...
I did not hear that about Mark Twain. Wow! Mind blown.
I really am a waiter and I think I'm pretty witty. LoL. My customers seem to like me so I'm good with that.
I think we all need to take care of what we joke about. My main concern with laughter is that we put ourselves down way too often to get a laugh and I want to be mindful of that and work on respecting myself more. I think with the self care that we will learn to pay it forward with how we interact with others.
I always have said that if you can't laugh at your self then don't laugh at others.
I do agree that most laughs come at the expense of someone else. I think its important to not cross that line that your cracking jokes that humiliates others to a point it causes them pain.
Nice idea for a post.
Thank you. I'm the first one to laugh at myself. I'm one of the funniest people I know. You're gaining in ranking quickly 😬
Laughter is the best medicine. It helps with blood pressure and weight loss. It could explain why i was skinny as a rail in my twenties and thirties - my friends and roommates were always doing something for me to laugh at.
I know what you mean. I'm still skinny as a rail. We might have had similar roommates and friends. Did your friends tell tall tales as well?
They mostly drank too much and slept around a lot
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Siempre les digo a mis hijos y esposo, un día sin risa es un día perdido y empiezo a reír como loca, ellos empiezan a reír y a jugar con distintas formas de reír, y nos divertimos un poco, la terapia de la risa es una buena terapia, y me divierte, un abrazo @the-witty-waiter.
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Upvoted , kryptonia id @jamescrusader
Yeah the word of God talks about peace and being cheerful a lot and I believe these are essentials to living a good life
We must be humble... God Bless
Laugh keep sorrow @bodymanual
howdy sir witty-waiter! this is a great post and thought-provoking as well, love the Mark Twain quote and of course the Bible quote is very true and proven out by medical science.
It's interesting that part of your actual job is to make people feel good and that many times turns into laughter so you could say that you get paid to make people laugh!
Laughter is definitely a benefit of the job. Sometimes it's just about trying to give great service like tonight. My comments were a little bit more reserved because from reading the situation I could tell they were more about the food than hearing me joke around. I have to be able to read the customers
yes sir witty-waiter, very interesting. and how long does it normally take you to read them, probably immediately?
Most of the time it's fairly quick. I had a highly functional autistic child tonight and I could tell the noise was getting him a little agitated so I pushed the kitchen to get his food out quickly to give him a distraction. It worked pretty well and I could tell the parents were able to relax and ended up enjoying their meal a lot. Just have to stay alert to these kind of things. I hear other servers complaining over a poor tip and my first thought is could they have done things differently. I keep my mouth shut but I'm keeping a mental tally
oh how interesting sir witty-waiter...excellent work there. But in regards to the other servers, you are keeping a mental tally for what purpose? just to know who is doing their job best?
One of the servers got a bad tip the other night and started this big to do over it and the MOD became involved. I often want to tell the server that I think she could try a little harder. I've worked with her for several years and I really have great affection for her but her table-side attitude seems quite lazy and uncaring and she's often complaining about poor tips. She's a really hard worker but her demeanor could use an adjustment but how do you go about putting that to her without hurting her feelings and creating a rift between us.
Long story short (ha ha), because of the situation of how the bill was paid by someone else, it came to the managers attention that the customer thought the service was awful and I was able to tell her to look at what she could have done differently and to think of it as a teaching moment and maybe her demeanor could be adjusted when approaching a customer.
This is why I'm keeping a tally. LoL.
howdy tonight sir witty-waiter! wow ..well did she react ok to your advice then? she should trust you by now I'd think. what is a bad tip? I want to be sure to know how much to tip.
So True, Laughter is the Best Medicine but only when it is kind.
laughter is the best medicine
Thanks for the post I do laugh alort but not unnecessarly cause it makes mee forget about anything that make me sad
Most times we need to laugh at our own stupidity to get over the hurdle of life.
Comedians who earn from using people or events in humour is in some ways reflecting on human traits just being human, or in some circumstances failure.
We all need a good daily dose, that is for sure, thanks for thought provoking content @the-witty-waiter
Laugher makes u live longer and younger