A challenge and encouragement to find one thing every day that makes you laugh, and write it down.
#OneFunnyThing
Original Post: May 22, 2017
There was a time in my life that I thought I could be successful at stand-up comedy. I never truly considered pursuing it as a profession, but I always imagined I could pick it up as a hobby. Every so often, pop over to an open-mic and see how things shook out. To do this, I began to try and write down jokes that I could use for my 2-3 minute sessions in front of the microphone.
Alas, it turns out that writing down something funny is difficult. I started off with a large list of bits and jokes that I thought would do great. I shelved them and happily went about my business to write more in the future. Much to my chagrin, as I went back to my list of jokes later that week, I realized, that nothing about these jokes was funny. How irritating.
This has happened so many times now that I'm undoubtedly too self-critical when looking at these jokes. Not to mention, that so much of comedy is timing and delivery, the words of the joke, or the idea that is funny can only make up a small piece of it.
Eventually, I took a deeper look into my consistent failed attempts at writing jokes. And, I had an epiphany. I realized that what I truly enjoy is making people laugh, and even more importantly, a sense of humor makes life so much better for anyone that can let themselves crack a smile.
Something about endorphins, or whatnot. The point is, that instead of trying to write jokes, what I really needed to do was simply make a conscious effort to notice something that made me laugh. It turns out this is a fun challenge. And so, I created the idea of #OneFunnyThing.
The point of this is simple. To encourage me, and anyone else that can see the value in laughter every day, to take notice of those things that make you laugh, and take a minute to write them down and share them. Social media makes it alot easier than it once was, and for any of you that have the proverbial "rough day at the office," perhaps looking back on the "OneFunnyThings" that you've noticed can help you turn your day around.
So here's the idea. I'm going to do the best I can to post at least one funny thing, idea, joke, observation, etc. as often as possible. For each, I will hashtag it with #OneFunnyThing. As it is a hashtag, maybe it catches on, maybe it doesn't, but for me, this should be at a minimum, personally rewarding.
With no further ado,
If you are known for being funny, then at some point, someone will tell you to "be funny." Personally, I think that in that moment, every funny thing you have ever done or said is removed from your memory immediately... But I saw someone respond to this by slapping the person and then yelling "MOSQUITO!" That made me happy in so many ways, not least of which, was in fact, funny on command. #OneFunnyThing.
