July 5, 2020

There hasn’t been a lot to laugh about in the last few months. Between the pandemic and outrage over racial injustice, everyone I know is either sad or mad or both.

And yet, I still crave a laugh. The saying “laughter is the best medicine” is literally true: Laughter helps bolster your immune system, diminishes pain and even lowers stress levels.

So, for the sake of mental health in these excruciating times, I’ve been seeking out comedy specials, silly movies and old stand-up favorites. I know I should be reading books about the economy, race and leadership. But I keep reaching for anything that will make me laugh out loud.

Mostly I try to laugh at myself. Sometimes I laugh where I can find absurdity. Like the whole mask thing. Instead of getting mad and upset, I find myself laughing at the hilarity of it all. Like when I take off my mask and it’s covered with my lipstick. Why do I bother with lipstick or makeup at all? No one can see my mouth.

It occurred to me that my mask has taken at least 10 years off my face because no one can see my neck. Why didn’t I wear these things years ago?

Sometimes, to avoid crying or anger, I just have to laugh at some of my fellow humans. Like the people wearing their mask below their nose. Or the quiet talkers who really need to learn how to speak up when wearing a mask. Or those who won’t wear a mask at all. (Yup, I said it.)

I also find myself laughing at my friends on Facebook a lot more. I’m not sure that they are funnier or if I just desperately need to laugh.

Gretchen Bye, a creative director at Partners + Napier, has found a creative outlet for her humor on Facebook. (A recent favorite: “I wonder how many calories deep sighing burns?”). When I asked her if it’s too soon for humor, she reminded me of this: “Laugh or cry, it’s a coping mechanism. It’s another way to process being out of control.”

Todd Youngman, a comedian and a marketing manager for Comedy at the Carlson, also makes me laugh out loud on Facebook. (My favorite: “I just finished all of Netflix. Guess I’ll go for a walk now.”

He knows how important laughter can be during challenging times, having lived through some himself. He became a comedian at the suggestion of his therapist, who made him sign up for an open mic years ago.

Which is why the club decided to produce comedy drive-ins in its enormous parking lot to get people laughing during the long days of isolation. Youngman says the drive-in shows were a big success, but it was a little odd not having the audience’s laughter to feed off. So, they devised a solution: People blinked their high-beams if they thought the comic was funny.

And now that they can have people in the club, Comedy at the Carlson will be back to a regular schedule of comics all summer long inside the club. They’ll actually be able to hear the socially distanced laughter.

Last week we lost one of the kings of comedy, Carl Reiner, who famously said, “The absolute truth is the thing that makes people laugh.”

In these incredibly hard times, I’d rather get my truth with a belly laugh than through sobbing. My definition of an Outlaw is an irreverent man or woman who makes a difference. Right now, I think we all need the difference that humor can make.

First Published in the Democrat and Chronicle and USA Today Network.

I Love (NEED) to Laugh

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