During a season of particularly heavy news, one of my favourite talk show hosts gave her listeners the gift of laughter.
The gift of laughing at themselves. She set aside 30 minutes of her talk show to share her most embarrassing moment, to invite her colleagues to share their stories, and listeners to call in with theirs.
I enjoyed a good chuckle and then asked myself, what would I share if I called in?
BELLY LAUGHS
I could think of many great stories to share about my husband. How he once perused an open garage, thinking it was hosting a garage sale.
As Mark lifted a tool from a box, the owner asked, incredulously, “What are you doing?”
“I’m fine, thanks, how are you?” answered Mark, purusing the rest of the boxes before setting the tool back in the box.
“What are you doing?” repeated the man.
“Isn’t this a garage sale?” answered Mark.
“No!” said the man.
Mark mumbled some sort of apology and retreated back to the truck, where I was waiting, observing the scene unfold, enjoying a hearty belly laugh.
LIT UP LAUGHS
Then there’s my favourite incident involving a malfunctioning light bulb. I wasn’t planning to share Mark’s stories, but my generous heart can’t bear the thought of you missing a great opportunity to laugh. Don’t worry I’ve asked his permission before posting… or maybe his forgiveness.
Mark went to London Drugs to replace a burned out light bulb for our seven year old daughter’s plug in night light. Mark, wanting to ensure he bought the appropriate bulb, took the plug in night light along.
He removed a light bulb off the shelf and astutely observed that the package had been opened. A second package had also been tampered with. Upon careful inspection, the third package appeared to be unopened. Satisfied with its condition, Mark made his way up to the till.
Always mindful of efficiency, Mark decided he should test these bulbs as he awaited his turn at the checkout. After all, the other two packages had been opened, and it would be a shame to go all the way home only to find out that the bulb was broken. Mark took a bulb out of the package and screwed it into his plug in socket. He turned the switch to “on”.
Sure enough, the bulb didn’t light. “Mmm hmm. Good thing I checked,” he muttered. He tried the other bulb in the package. That one didn’t light either.
Just then he noticed that the customer ahead of him happened to be purchasing the exact, same bulbs.
Ever helpful, Mark addressed the customer ahead of him.
“Sir, do you want to test those light bulbs? I just picked up the same ones, and mine aren’t working. You can test your bulbs in my little night light.”
The customer, clearly grateful for Mark’s thoughtful assistance, thanked him, and handed him the bulb. Mark screwed it in and turned the switch to “on”. Sure enough, it didn’t light.
By this time, they had reached the check out. Mark pointed out to the cashier that the light bulbs were defective. She patiently listened to the complaint regarding malfunctioning merchandise. Mark demonstrated the problem by flipping the switch…
The cashier respectfully replied, “Sir, I think you need to actually plug in the light.”
To which Mark replied, “Oh, yes. Of course!”
When Mark recounted his blunder to a friend and me that evening, we literally rolled on the floor laughing.
Many years later, the memory of Mark’s foibles still made me laugh out loud. I considered my own inventory of embarrassing moments. The best I could come up with involved slipping and falling in high heels and a pencil skirt, way back in high school. And it barely counted as embarrassing, because I don’t think there were any witnesses.
This prompted a question. Why don’t I have any embarrassing stories? My first thought, of course, was I must be a graceful person who is nearly perfect!
Hmm, somehow that’s doubtful.
Am I living too cautiously? Not taking risks that could lead to the possibility of others witnessing my mistakes? Do I take myself too seriously? Do I suppress embarrassing memories because I can’t laugh at myself?
ELEVATOR LAUGHS
Within a week, I kid you not, I had the best embarrassing story, rivalling even those belonging to my husband. The family was gathering in my sister- in- law’s downtown Vancouver condo to celebrate her convocation. I had the privilege of occupying her visitors parking stall, which required picking up her parking pass and then returning to place it on the dash of my car.
Rondalyn lives on the 20th floor. I called for the elevator, pressing number 20. A man joined me and pressed the number for his desired destination. Rather than engaging in small talk, I looked at the two lit numbers within the grid of elevator buttons. I recalled the scene from the movie, “Elf”. Will Ferrell plays a character named Buddy, who experienced culture shock. Buddy, who having just arrived from the North Pole, is enamoured by the elevator buttons in the Empire State Building. With great delight, he slides his hands over all the buttons so that they light up like a Christmas tree. His fellow elevator companions do NOT share his delight.
The elevator stopped, with me still subtly chuckling. “What a coincidence?” I thought to myself. “What are the odds that in a building of 25 floors, two of us would be getting off on the same floor?”
I walked to my sister-in-law’s apartment door, eager to share the anticipated camaraderie, laughter and food.
Opening the door, I called out my enthusiastic greeting.
Within a fraction of a second, I noted several oddities. Something seemed off.
The lighting was wrong. It seemed darker. Rondalyn always has her lights on. I was the last of five guests to enter the apartment, and yet it was silent? Not possible. These are Fitzes!
And to my horror, there stood a man, standing in his underwear, pulling on a pair of jeans!
“I’m so sorry, sir, I must have the wrong floor!”
I exited the apartment, moving more quickly than I believed possible.
A few doors down the hall stood the man with whom I had shared the elevator, unlocking his apartment door.
“Wrong floor? I kinda wondered why you followed me out of the elevator,” he chuckled.
I politely laughed and got back in the elevator. I exhaled deeply, my face hot as the door closed. I left floor 19 relieved that I would never see that man… either man, again. I resumed my journey to the 20th floor, my face beginning to cool. Suddenly, the hilarity of the situation flooded me with laughter, especially as I considered the irony of my lack of embarrassing stories just days earlier.
I opened Rondalyn’s apartment door after cautiously confirming that the number on the door was indeed, 2001. All the expected light, laughter and chatter greeted me.
“Oh do I have a story…” I exclaimed, as Rondalyn gave me the parking pass to take down to my car.
I returned to the elevator, and joined the woman already inside. I pressed the ground floor button, still chuckling, and thinking, “I will not be distracted and follow this woman out of the elevator.” To my surprise, and horror… the elevator slowed and stopped at floor 19. Who should be waiting but my new “friend” from 1901.
“Fancy meeting you here!” I called out. He laughed and explained my blunder to our elevator companion.
To which I replied, “And to think my only comfort was that I would never see you again!”
We all shared a laugh, and I successfully exited the elevator at the appropriate floor.
THE GIFT OF LAUGHS
I love God’s humour. I love his gift of laughter.
Laughter at our own foibles and idiosyncrasies is the best of the best medicine!
When I laugh at my mistakes, I remember I’m small. If I can’t laugh at my mistakes, I’m taking myself too seriously. Laughter at my own expense assures me I’m not delusional. The world, my community and my life don’t depend upon my perfection.
Here are some of my favourite gifts that evoke laughter.
- My dog, Boulder
- Children between the ages of 2-6
- Many of my friends and family.
- Stuart Mclean, Vinyl Cafe
- Mr. Bean
- Fawlty Towers
- Elf
- Seinfeld
Bible Reading
Proverbs 17:22; Genesis 21:6; Psalm 126:2; Psalm 131:1
Pondering
When is the last time you had a good belly laugh? When is the last time you laughed at yourself?
Laughter is best when it’s shared. I would be delighted if you would graciously share your embarrassing moments, funny memories, movies, comedians, etc. Whatever makes you LAUGH OUT LOUD.
Links
Marilyn Newbury, one beloved sister-in- law, lives the wisdom of laughter. She has inspired me to laugh at myself and share the crazy. You’ll enjoy reading about her escapades.
6 thoughts on “Laugh Out Loud”
Thanks for the laughs in reading your post tonight. I was reminded of a time in college…
I lived in a co-ed dorm and would always stop at my male neighbour’s door, thinking it was my room. Thankfully, I’d catch myself in time and realize I needed to go a little further to my own room.
One night I was a little bleary eyed after returning from a late night out. I opened the door to what I thought was my room, took off my clothes and proceeded to try and climb into bed with my neighbour, who woke up and
graciously told me I was in the wrong room. I quickly exited, clothes still on his floor, thinking I could just hop into my room. To my chagrin, as I stood in the hallway wearing nothing but my skivvies, I found my door was locked and I didn’t have my key. To add insult to injury, several dorm mates were also coming home and saw me frantically trying to open my door! Talk about embarrassing. What else could I do but laugh it off?
Sounds like those were wild dorm days! Thanks for adding extra laughs!
Rich Words Dear Heart. The embarrassing moment that comes to mind for me, was going to pick up dear friends from the airport in their vehicle, but before I could accomplish that, I had to back their standard truck up their steep driveway. I did not accomplish this without first sliding forward into the garage door and breaking it! I was so rattled that once I got going, I ran a red light! Weeks later I was presented with a speeding ticket!! My gracious friends allowed me to pay the speeding ticket, but did not allow me to pay for the damaged garage door!! Grace upon grace.
That’s a great story! It seems vaguely familiar. Hahaha! Thanks for sharing. It’s so awesome to be human and fallible and loved.
Betty
I have so many embarrassing moments, I can’t decide which one to tell.
Well here goes… I had bought a package of a number of pantyhose because they were on sale by buying them that way. When you’d wear these stupid things they would get “runs” almost as soon as you’d put them on. So I took them back to the store where I had purchased them and explained my dilemma. The girl at the till took one out of the bag and lifted it up. To my chagrin it was the one that I had cut the foot part off, up to the ankle, to strain some paint that had formed a skin on the surface. “What’s this?” As I stammered my explanation, in my peripheral vision I noticed the my cousin Maxine who was with me, was backing up in the line! (Maybe she didn’t want to know me?)
HaHaHaHa!!!! That is hillarious!!! Are you related to my husband?! Not that he has used pantyhose for such things, but there’s this common thread of “returns” and resourcefulness gone wrong. In fact, there may be more such stories amongst the family. Thank you for sharing the laugh.