Endearing?

My mom and dad bought a new mattress.  It has a supposed 30-year warranty.  In my insensitivity and morbid humor, I said to my mom, "You'll die before this mattress does!"

Cue: Siblings' horror at such an observation.

Mom: But I'm only 52!
Tanya: Yeah, Grandma died at 80.

My mom starts to seriously consider this because sometimes she doesn't get my anti-jokes, but the siblings quickly assuage the situation and change the subject.

Then my mom chimes in.  "Yeah, but I think Christ will come again before I die...and I just feel so bad that you kids won't get any of our inheritance."

Aww, thanks Mom!  Wait...

self-reflection

I'm a weird person. I do a lot of weird things. I have a strange sense of humor. And I laugh at my own jokes--sometimes by myself. (But I quickly shut that down because funny people don't laugh at their own jokes. I blogged about that here. And I want to be a funny person.)

Can you work on being funny? Or is it just inherent? I feel like you can work on any other quality like patience, kindness, assertiveness, etc. I don't know about funny though. Maybe you have it or you don't. I just don't want to be a 40 year-old spinsty, and all people can say about me is, "I don't know why she's alone. She's so...nice." Bleh. I feel like "nice" is the last resort quality when people can't think of anything else to describe you. I'd rather be funny.

Funny is actually a funny word if you keep saying it to yourself.

One time a guy was talking about a girl he was trying to date, and he said she was "too independent." (Ugh, this isn't the 1950's...) He also had a problem with the fact that she was funnier than he was, so he couldn't impress her with his (non)-humor.

He was lame, but it made me think. Do boys not like girls to be too funny?!?

Anyway, like I've said a million times before, I'm really weird. I hang out a lot by myself these days, so I have a lot of time to be really weird. (i.e. singing in random voices, impersonating singers, spontaneous interpretive dancing to a song, talking to myself, laughing to myself, then trying to make my laugh more feminine sounding, making weird faces in the mirror, modeling in front of the mirror, etc.) That's just by-myself-weirdness/narcissism. I have around-people-weirdness too, but it's a little more mild.

Sometimes I'll be doing a weird thing, and I'll think to myself, "Wow, would you ever do this in front of another human being?"

And I hope one day that I can. I hope one day someone will like that I'm weird. Actually, I hope he will love that I'm weird. I'm still waiting on that though.

Haha

I just came across this quote:

"Every living woman likes wedding crap. Even lesbians."

That's probably true deep down. But I can't speak for everyone...

Maybe I think you're cute and funny

Pet peeve: People who laugh at their own jokes.

I've thought about what really makes people funny to me. The secret to a well-told joke or funny comment is the fact that you don't laugh too much about it yourself or at least delay your laughter until everyone else laughs.

General example: Sometimes people will be talking in a group, and someone makes (or attempts to make) a comment that has the potential to be funny. Three mistakes are possible to be made here. These mistakes can be made separately or in conjunction with one another. Mistake 1: They laugh too soon--meaning before anyone else. Mistake 2: They are the only one to actually laugh. Mistake 3: They keep laughing when others have moved on from the joke.

This isn't to say that you should be stone-faced when you try to say something funny because that could be equally disastrous. Basically, it's all about these little things called social cues.

Basic Formula: Say something you think is funny+wait for your crowd's response+respond to your crowd's response+calm down before everyone else= successful funny person.

Remember, sometimes you may say something that no one will find funny. Chalk it up to a tough crowd and move on with the conversation; don't make it worse by laughing at it. Real humor may not be this methodical or cut and dry, but this is a baby step to honing those skills.

I hope this helps someone, so that I will have one less pet peeve to deal with.

Cheerio!