Laughing At Ourselves
April 27, 2008 by Jonathan Brink
I have a friend in my life who makes me laugh absolutely every time I see him. He’s hysterically funny. And his humor is often centered in making fun of himself or doing some caricature that is hilarious. In a crowded room he can take over, capturing people’s attention.
And I realized that his power is the hidden ability to communicate brokenness in a way that we could accept. He was reflecting back our own absurdity, silliness and humanity in a way that we could laugh at. But he was allowing us to laugh at him instead. It always reminded me of the class clown at school who always grabbed the attention. We all secretly wished we could be him even though we could NEVER do what he did.
Humor has always been man’s best medicine because deep down we know that it’s true.
Jonathan, I know that feeling and this is the quintessential “two things can be true at once” idea because that person who is able to make the crowd laugh might also have the problem of the clown who is crying on the inside. He is really trying to say something but does not know how to get it out in a mature way. Been there, done that!