December 7: The Very Best Medicine

Who or what makes you laugh so hard that milk shoots out of your nose and why? Slapstick, dry witty comedy, your kids, Monty Python? (Kassie)

There is virtually nothing I don't find funny. In fact, one of my special talents is an uncanny ability to find levity and humor in pretty much everything. I believe we grow from being able to laugh at ourselves. I believe that humor is cathartic and instructive and healing. I love to laugh.

Don’t wait for me to say "Oh, Chuck!"
Get in here on the "Oh!"

My comedic chops were honed, at a very young age, on Abbott and Costello. Hold That Ghost and Buck Privates were a couple of my absolute favorite childhood movies. We owned these films on VHS, and I bet I saw each of them over 100 times. I loved Lou Costello, thought the Andrews Sisters were so glamorous, and knew all the gags by heart. When I watch these movies today, they are replete with nostalgia... comedic and familial.

We Ronnings are funny folks. Embracing humor is totally a Ronning family value.

I love my dad's jokes. I love it when he starts laughing in the middle of a story and can't finish it.

I love that my brother has inherited my dad's sense of humor. He is dry and quick-witted and sharp. The two of them play off of each other so seamlessly.

I love that my sister and I chat online every day and have essentially created our own IM vernacular. We use it to communicate, but sometimes we just laugh at our own jokes. Because we're funny, dammit.

I love that none of us really think of Mom as a jokester, and then when we're not paying attention, she drops a huge laugh-bomb. She told one a couple years ago (it would take too long to explain) that we still talk about on a regular basis...it still sends us into riotous fits of laughter. Dad still says "I wish I would have thought of that one!"

Proving the old adage: You always
marry a man just as funny as
your father.

And I love (most of) Jay's jokes. I rate them with "Wockas" (like Fozzie Bear wockas...I've been doing this for years, not just because the great Muppet movie came out). Sometimes he'll get 5-out-of-5 wockas...sometimes he'll only get 2. And if it's bad, he actually gets wocka demerits. My favorite thing about Jay's joke-telling (ubiquitous as it is) is when he gets all indignant after I groan at one of his not-particularly-great ones, and pouts, "You would have laughed if your dad told it."

Just about anything can send me into snorty, snot-spewing, hiccup-filled fits of hilarity...I don't really have one type of humor. So here comes a non sequitur, non-nonsensical brain dump of a few of my favorite comedic gems:

I love The Onion. I'm sure you do too. Except I loved The Onion before you loved The Onion. I'm not just saying that to be a hipster snob (okay, I am, a little bit)...I really did love it before you did...because The Onion was created by University of Wisconsin students in 1988. And when I started school there in 1993 (pre-internet, obviously), it was largely still just a Madison thing. I still remember the first thing I ever read in The Onion...an issue was laying open on the floor in a Chemistry lecture hall...scattered among the newspapers from that day. Staring up at me from the floor blared the most awesome article ever...an "Ask the Virgin" Sex Advice Column ("I've never had sex, but if I did, I'd be sure to use two condoms...just in case). There's been no turning back, ever since.

And, as I'm sure many of you do, I love 30 Rock. But while Tina Fey is hilarious and may evoke all of our inner Liz Lemons, I think that Alec Baldwin is the MVP of that show. This is the funniest scene that has ever graced the airwaves. And I'll fight you if you try to say otherwise.

I do feel guilty about that.

I love Simon Pegg in the new-ish Star Trek film. Especially when he's talking about teleporting grapefruits from planet to planet, and quips, "Which is easy, by the way." Jay and I spout that line all the time. For everything.

Mystery Science Theater (especially the full-length film) is a gift sent down to earth from some celestial, Minnesota-based, comedic deity.

And the Fake Rahm Emanuel Twitter account was pure, f@cking genius. 

"Jay, have you seen my thermos?"
"It's in Stephen...all ready to go!"

My comedic house of worship lies in the studios of Comedy Central: I am a zealous disciple of Stewart and Colbert. I even carry a Colbert tote bag to work every day. This is generation-defining stuff, people. It's one of those things that 20-some years from now, I'll be proud to be able to say, "I lived through this! These were the people of my era!"

I laugh at any and every FRIENDS rerun. Even though I've seen each of the episodes at least a dozen times.

And this Mary Mack person (watch the video on the bottom left)...a local, Twin Cities, comedienne...she is too much! I need to make a concerted effort to catch her live again.

German Guest: Will you stop talking about the war?!
Fawlty: ME?! You started it!
German Guest: We did not start it!
Fawlty: Yes you did...you invaded Poland!

Thanks to Netflix, I was able to watch the one-and-only, gem-of-a-season of Fawlty Towers. John Cleese is bloody brilliant. I can't believe there are only 12 episodes of this deliciousness for the world to enjoy. Connie Booth? Prunella Scales? Dear Heavens. Screw those panda bears that refuse to mate. Someone should have saved Fawlty Towers.

I could go on and on.

Like I said, there isn't much that I don't find funny. I wish I'd put together a more cogent presentation of all this stuff...but mostly I've just been sitting here, watching videos and chuckling to myself. So this turns out to be a rather self-indulgent post...but it made for a spectacular night, so I guess it's all okay.




One more thing before I go...(and pardon my politics)...

Since Donald Trump is about to moderate a debate (a man who never lets anyone else talk is going to referee an event where other people take turns talking!!!! [head explodes]), I leave you with this (totally NSFW because of all the bleeped-out effing eff-bombs):

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