Thursday, May 28, 2009

Humor -- even raunchy humor -- is rarely bad


I don't know how many of you are on Facebook, but one of the things I love about it is the humor.

One of the favorite targets -- in about three or four different applications -- are those lovely desktop and wall posters that have been around for the last 20 years or so trumpeting good virtues to follow in life.

Some of them are very nice. My son got me one called "Integrity" a few years back that sat on my desk at work for three or four years. In fact, it was there longer than I was. I had to go back for it after I got canned in January 2008.

The ones on Facebook certainly don't celebrate our good qualities. In fact, they glorify our snarky side, as in this one with George W. Bush checking out a target-rich environment.

There are other ones, covering everything from video-game nerds to enormously fat people to all sorts of sexual themes. This one, for instance:



Yes, they're lewd, crude and fairly rude. And yes, most of us are 59 or 60 years old at this point.

But I always thought one of the things we lacked in our high-school days was something really funny and raunchy like the National Lampoon.

I've often been accused of being an aging frat boy. To which I plead gloriously guilty. (I was also called Wally Cleaver gone to seed sometime in the '80s, which I had more mixed feelings about.)

But I sure hope I never stop laughing at stuff like this, and I sure hope I never stop enjoying stand-up comedy or funny movies.

One of the greatest thrills of my life came in the summer of 2001 when I had the opportunity to do five minutes or so of stand-up at a sort of open-mike night for new comics. I can't say I "killed," but I got laughs.

Other than family stuff, I don't know if I ever enjoyed myself more.

So look at the pictures and laugh. If you can't laugh, mutter something about some people ought to grow up.

I've heard it before.

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