I'm an April Fool

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Although I'm not much for the pranks associated with today, I do a lot of silly things. Sometimes they are silly because I'm completely naive or unaware of what's actually going on. Sometimes I do them to entertain. I realized however that this is something that I inherited, that it's part of me, and so I find it appropriate to mention now.

I tell a lot of jokes in class. When we talk about the law of gravity, I tell a joke about a failed attempt to get a date. Unlike what most people think, gravity has nothing to do with "falling"; it says that two objects are accelerated towards one another according to the inverse square of their distance to mass ratio. In other words, gravity keeps us on earth because we are very close and very small compared to the earth. In space, there's nothing nearby of significantly different mass, and so gravity doesn't really work like we think it does here. So, when a young lady blew me off because I was too fat, I dismissed her and told her, "Nonsense, you should be more attracted to me because of my greater mass." She didn't understand, but some other listeners chuckled, and the students snicker too, so it serves its purpose.

My interest in this kind of humor came from the way I was raised. My parents made sure they gave us access to classics from their youth, including the entertainment antics of Danny Kaye. We really enjoyed watching The COurt Jester as a family, so much so that we continue to quote it to each other because of its entertainment value. When my siblings and I gather, we trade lines and share laughs as we remember doing things together as a family.

I pass some of these on to other people besides my siblings and nieces. When my cousin came through to visit with his clan of sons, I wrestled with them. As they escalated the fighting, I broke out the "aroshio toshio" which is the tickle torture to which my father subjected us when we were young. Soon we were all laughing as we tickled one another instead of hitting one another, and when I told my dad, he told me that this was a tradition passed down from HIS father. It might actually be a Japanese phrase since my paternal grandfather was a missionary to Japan, but I don't know and I doubt it's spelled correctly. I was looking at pictures Sunday night, and I found a screen shot of a friend who no longer talks to me passing one of these gestures back to me when I had a rough day. Like my dad, I put socks on my ears to look goofy when people are sad, and she had socks on her ears in this shot. It's interesting what gets passed on to others.

I am an April fool. Born in April, and infused with a sense that the world is mad, I mock myself in class all the time, because I'm the only person I can legitimately mock, and because if you can't have fun with yourself, you're not really all that much fun or that clever. I make them laugh. I told one woman I dated that if she married me I'd do everything I could to make her laugh or smile every day. I have a lot of Doug jokes, and most of them are pretty lame, but contrary to popular belief I do laugh and smile quite frequently. I had a funny idea thanks to Danny Kaye to be a jester. I wonder what other antics and jokes and stories people pass on or keep, or if they keep them at all.