The Serious Business of Frivolity.

How the simple knock knock joke can help you exercise your mind and help you to become cleverer at the same time.

We like knock knock jokes, not because they are funny, but because they are clever.  I had this realization the other day when my 7 year old son was asking me why I was laughing at one of his jokes. I realized, it wasn’t because it was funny. I was laughing because it was clever.

Knock Knock jokes only work when they are based on a good pun or if they so completely break the rules that we are amused. In both instances it is the cleverness that amuses us. Or more specifically, we are surprised by the cleverness and so start laughing.

Coming up with a good knock knock joke is actually quite difficult because coming up with good puns is hard to do. My son is still grappling with this so his knock knock jokes are only occasionally funny, which is why he was asking me why I had laughed at one of them. He wanted to know so he could come up with more like that. It’s all part of the learning process.

To write a good knock knock joke, takes time and effort and a good deal of thinking. Like anything, the more you practice, the better you get at it and the easier they are to write.

Yes, writing knock knock jokes is a frivolous waste of time. That’s exactly the point. It is a fun and difficult task for your brain and is therefore good exercise for the brain. If you want to be more clever, you need to start practicing. Knock knock jokes are as good a place to start as any and a good deal more fun that other more serious forms of brain exercise.  This might be why Humanists love telling jokes.

So, let’s have them. Give me your favorite knock knock joke. Or your favorite pun based joke. And be honest, did you make it up or steal it from someone else? Either is fine with me as long as I get a good laugh out of them!

Holy Piggies

Who says Humanists are dry serious people? Yes we think a lot. But sometimes what we think about is pretty funny.

I have a 7 year old boy. When we want to curse or exclaim something, we do our best to not use coarse language. Not because we feel any words are taboo, but because we recognize that our feelings about the power of particular words is irrelevant. Society has social prohibitions on young kids using certain words.

Anyway, some of these exclamations are Holy Cow or Holy piggies or holy mackerel. My son and I were having a ball a few days ago considering what all these phrases mean. Obviously, they are idiomatic expressions so they aren’t meant to be literal.  However, if they were literal, what a hoot that would be.

My son decided to consider what all could be considered holy and why.  Holy piggies are little piggies with miters on their heads in a procession holding candles. Holy cows are nuns. I rather imagine holy mackerels to be mounted fish that sing and chant.

Some of the potential holy animals were fun to consider, some, not so much. For instance: holy pond scum doesn’t bring up an image of anything but pond scum. However, holy tigers are rather Buddha like tigers in robes like the tiger from kung fu panda, but more serene.  Holy horses are horses walking on back legs with the neck wear of a priest. Holy turkeys  have miters.

Why am I sharing this with you?  I have no idea.  Just something I wanted to share as a way to close out the year.  Just curious though. What is your favorite holy combination?