Did You Hear The One About . . .

Or Humor at the Expense of Others.

This . . .



Followed by this . . .



(Um . . .)

(hold on . . .)

I have to admit it, I got nothin' except a lame banana peal joke.

What do you do when the idiots, morons and fools in your life go on sabbatical, vacation or just plain stay behind?

• Work on a puzzle?
• Host a martial arts sleepover with a couple of dozen kids, including teenagers?
• Look for work?
• Watch someone else be creative?
• Whine?

This is the creative case. I'm now so far divorced from my previous position and circumstance that anything I write may sound petty and self-serving rather than insightful and thought provoking.

(sound of crickets chirping while my wife stifles a laugh)

The whole problem is it's easy to be funny and creative when others do it for you. If you can sit back in your cubicle, close your eyes and listening to the thundering sound of idiocy as it pounds its way through policy and procedure, then it just sort of flows out of you like a torrent.

If not you find yourself sitting at the dining room table staring at a blank screen wondering just where all the funny comes from.

It's the same no matter what. Where do your ideas come from? Personal experience? Complicated exercises designed to stimulate the creative process? The Idea Fairy?

Personally I like the last one.

Seriously.

Who wouldn't like the image of a middle-aged woman in a pink frilly dress floating through the air until she stops just above you. Suddenly she swings her wand down and cracks you on top of the skull leaving you with a huge red welt and a desperate need for an aspirin. The last thing you'll hear as you struggle to get to the medicine chest is the voice of a sweet old lady saying . . .

"Now that's funny."