Cents of Humour
Izzy Sommers, MD[retired]
7-140 Elmview Street, West
Welland, ON L3C 4K7, Canada
TELEPHONE: 905-788-2237
EMAIL: canadizzy@yahoo.ca
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
The Editor, The Welland Tribune
228 East Main Street
Welland, ON L3B 5P5, Canada
TELEPHONE: 905-732-2411
EMAIL: tribune@wellandtribune.ca
RE: Cents of Humour in Welland
Dear Editor and Staff,
Yesterday, I was still internally amused by a joke an elderly lady had told me at Euchre some 5 or 6 weeks ago. I’d shared it with many of my kith and kin and generally got a good response. I was at the Seniors’ Centre and I discovered that very few people laughed at the joke. So I started keeping track. Of the 46 people to whom I told the joke, only 7 laughed heartily and 9 didn’t laugh at all. Some 12 people smiled in a friendly manner, while some 14 groaned in a good-natured way. Another 3 asked me to repeat the joke before they reacted with a grunt, while 1 person wanted me to write it out and then she laughed when she read it.
Canada has a fine tradition of humour. Dan Akroyd, Rich Little, Jim Carey, Don Sutherland, Lorne Greene, Graham Green, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Lorne Michaels, Brian Mulrooney, and Pierre Trudeau are but a few of the Canadians that invoke laughter, or have invoked laughter, in retrospect. Like Jack Benny and Johnny Carson, many of them have been students of their craft. Steve Allen and Jack Paar often tried to explain why people laugh. Johnny Carson was wont to quote a writer who claimed that there were only 7 kinds of jokes and that all jokes were variations of these. In interviews, Sir Dan Akroyd frequently likes to analyse the special humour that he and John Belushi created, as the “Blues Brothers.”
This is the joke that still has me smiling and will probably make me smile for a long time: How many reindeer does Santa have? The answer is 10. Most people remember the original 8, including Donner and Blitzen, Thunder and Lightening. Most people remember the 9th as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Few people know about Olive. If you sing the Rudolph song, it states clearly that “Olive the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. She never let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games.” Did you laugh? Did you smile? Did you grunt? Did you get it? I’m guessing that if you are nervous and a perfectionist, you didn’t laugh. I’m guessing that if you’re not used to my delivery, in writing or in person, you didn’t laugh. Sorry...
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
Izzy Sommers.
7-140 Elmview Street, West
Welland, ON L3C 4K7, Canada
TELEPHONE: 905-788-2237
EMAIL: canadizzy@yahoo.ca
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
The Editor, The Welland Tribune
228 East Main Street
Welland, ON L3B 5P5, Canada
TELEPHONE: 905-732-2411
EMAIL: tribune@wellandtribune.ca
RE: Cents of Humour in Welland
Dear Editor and Staff,
Yesterday, I was still internally amused by a joke an elderly lady had told me at Euchre some 5 or 6 weeks ago. I’d shared it with many of my kith and kin and generally got a good response. I was at the Seniors’ Centre and I discovered that very few people laughed at the joke. So I started keeping track. Of the 46 people to whom I told the joke, only 7 laughed heartily and 9 didn’t laugh at all. Some 12 people smiled in a friendly manner, while some 14 groaned in a good-natured way. Another 3 asked me to repeat the joke before they reacted with a grunt, while 1 person wanted me to write it out and then she laughed when she read it.
Canada has a fine tradition of humour. Dan Akroyd, Rich Little, Jim Carey, Don Sutherland, Lorne Greene, Graham Green, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Lorne Michaels, Brian Mulrooney, and Pierre Trudeau are but a few of the Canadians that invoke laughter, or have invoked laughter, in retrospect. Like Jack Benny and Johnny Carson, many of them have been students of their craft. Steve Allen and Jack Paar often tried to explain why people laugh. Johnny Carson was wont to quote a writer who claimed that there were only 7 kinds of jokes and that all jokes were variations of these. In interviews, Sir Dan Akroyd frequently likes to analyse the special humour that he and John Belushi created, as the “Blues Brothers.”
This is the joke that still has me smiling and will probably make me smile for a long time: How many reindeer does Santa have? The answer is 10. Most people remember the original 8, including Donner and Blitzen, Thunder and Lightening. Most people remember the 9th as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Few people know about Olive. If you sing the Rudolph song, it states clearly that “Olive the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. She never let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games.” Did you laugh? Did you smile? Did you grunt? Did you get it? I’m guessing that if you are nervous and a perfectionist, you didn’t laugh. I’m guessing that if you’re not used to my delivery, in writing or in person, you didn’t laugh. Sorry...
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
Izzy Sommers.
posted by izzy sommers at 7:01 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home