Talk Like a Pirate Day is Not Funny
Have you ever listened to a whole episode of Car Talk? If so you heard those fun-loving, wise cracking brothers simulate hysterical laughter for two hours. How did that make you feel? If you wanted to trim your ears off with your daughter’s Hello Kitty scissors, you might be like me.
Or maybe you’re more like my friend, Tony (not real name). He is a great guy. But he told me he watches a comedy with the intention of laughing his ass off — no matter what. Once Tony sets the dial in his head to “laugh time” he’s the guy cackling at Dumb and Dumber Too (the least funny sequel ever). He’ll always come away satisfied.
If you looked Tony right in his eyes and commanded, “FUNNY TIME NOW — THIS NEXT SHOW MAKE YOU LAUGH” he’d be grabbing his sides for the proscribed thirty minutes. His laughs are like old people’s bowel movements. They’re made possible through careful preparation; they proceed as scheduled; and they are celebrated.
If the rising popularity of Talk like a Pirate Day is any indication, there are more people like Tony walking the earth in 2015. They think talking like a pirate on a certain day of the year is very funny. You see it on Facebook. You hear it at the office. The Activities Director at your mother’s retirement community asks everyone to say ARRGH at dinner.
My dark Irish world view tells me this phenomena is likely to grow.
Let us not forget that humor is an indicator of HUMANITY — it’s the most authentic, least predictable emotional reaction
Bad things happen when they attempt to control funny. If you’ve ever had an overbearing boss tell an awful joke and throw down body language that insists on a big laugh from the team, you know what I’m talking about. It breaks your spirit.
I mentioned I’m Irish American. Humor allowed the Irish to cope with a series of invasions over the past thousand years. They’d eventually cut the balls off these marauders, but until that day arrived, the only thing those uninvited visitors noticed from the Irish was a sly wit that they didn’t quite understand. A Gaelic war call, disguised as well as an Indian bird whistle.
Real funny is subversive and can’t be controlled or manufactured. It comes from something true. It isn’t politically correct. It is not understood by lawyers, despots or pirates.
So from now on, let’s all agree it’s OK to laugh AT pirate day but not WITH IT. Shiver me Timbers: I’m shocked we have let it get this far.
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