Theres an old joke that is frequently attributed to Groucho Marx, but I believe it originally appears in Freud's Wit and it's Relation to the Unconscious, and it goes like this;
I would never want to belong to any club that would have a person like me for a member.
This is a paraphrased excerpt from the opening monologue of one of my favorite movies, Annie Hall. I chose to write about this not because of the joke, but because of the source, 'wit and it's relation to the unconscious' made me think.
One of my pet-peeves is when people are so uncomfortable with disclosing the nature of their true thoughts that they feel compelled to postscribe it to their sense of humor with the insensitivity curbing catch-all phrase, "Just Kidding." In my experience, the most appropriate response to give when someone says this to you is, "No, you're not". And I know you're not, why are you going to insult my intelligence like that?
The point that I am trying to make is that humor has an undeniable tie to our own feelings, because it comes from them. So when we say things to others that we feel the need to disguise as humor when we're really not kidding at all, it should give us all pause, and we should wonder, why are we so bothered by our own feelings, or more specifically by other people's reactions to our own honest feelings about things? If you're not comfortable saying it, then why is it coming out of your mouth to begin with? Or even better, if it's coming out of your mouth, and you really believe it, how can you possibly be uncomfortable with it?
I just think everything would be much better if people we're able to just grow up and roll with it. If you need to say something, stick behind it, don't pitter-patter. Or try thinking before you talk. If you have to tip-toe with it, maybe you really don't need to be saying it in the first place. These are just my thoughts.
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