The Magic of Sense of Humor

I am attracted with the above quote by Mahatma Gandhi about sense of humor. Since I was a kid , sense of humor has been part of my way of doing things. But sometimes things that I found amused me could turn to be annoying to some people. I used to make practical joke by firing rocket firecrackers into the bathroom while my sister was having bath. My father was really mad about that. I used to pour clorox into an aquarium that caused a massacre of by brother's fish pets. And the whole family was really mad at me. I played James Bond and used diamond to cut the antique mirror that belongs to my mother, and she was really mad about it. In the nut shell, sense of humors have limits and must be practiced with some level of controls. Not everyone enjoys the sense of humors of yours.

Back in school, I could recall that those kids who had lots of sense of humor tend to be more famous than those who were not. I supposed the humor then was different from the humor now. So was the humor back in 50's, 60's , 70's so on and so forth. But throughout the decades , it is human nature to be attracted to things that make them laugh or smile.

If what I observed or gone through were right , there is a linkage between humor and creativity. And creativity is important or part of the ingredients towards being productive and innovative. The only difference would be the level of humor and also the content of the humor itself.

I have had many teachers who possessed lots of sense of humor. Those teachers were our favorite moments. Kids just couldn't wait for those teacher to enter the class. When I was in primary school, the best teacher with sense of humor was our discipline teacher, Cikgu R . He would make all sort of jokes and I would say they were way better than today's comedy programs on TV. But of course, I was from all boys school and the jokes were kind of X-Rated sometimes, and actually most of the time.

Even though Cikgu R scolded us or sometime cane the students, we had no hard feelings and keep in our heart. We could differentiate between the punishments,  rewards and jokes. At one time, there were two students having conflicts about a girl . They were fighting about that topic and the prefect couldn't handle it. The case was brought to attention of Mr. R. Within 2 minutes , Cikgu R resolved the issue with his X-Rated jokes and the whole class were

put into laughter and those two students ended laughing, it was like putting water right onto fire. That's the magic of sense of humor. I wish this could be apply to the nations at War. Do we need to send Mr. Bean or Russel Peters to the peace negotiation. Talking about peace, the Peace Guru, Mr. Prem Rawat has a good sense of humor. It was well communicated through fables and analogies. Hopefully his method can bring more peace to the world.

I remember one friend back then in 1986 , we were in standard 6. He has the character of extraordinary sense of humor but at the same time being the most active person in sports , pretty good in studies and of course, lots of secret admirers from the nearby girl school. I could vividly remember each of the crazy stuffs that he did until today. When I think of him, I could only see a brilliant boy smiling and always has some crazy ideas to share with the rest.

People were easily get along with this boy because of the crazy stuffs and jokes he used to crack us with. We were in the same soccer team , and we could hardly feel tired during training because this person cracks jokes all the time. But our late coach , Mr. A sometimes couldn't stand this boy behaviors.  Today, from what I heard , this boy has turned up to be a religious person and  is staying somewhere in the middle east.  Not really sure on the fact , but from the trusted source , he is now acting as an informal Malaysian diplomat for Malaysian students studied abroad and for those Malaysian visitors in that country. I don't have much information on this person but I presume he is doing well and still posses the great sense of humor. It is always be my pleasure to meet him again.

Today, the comedy shows have been so famous and recently there was a one day slot of 24 hours live comedy marathon show. In the early stage , I could appreciate these kind of shows but as it grows big and condensed, I think we should be thinking of a much better way to educate our people, especially the content of the jokes.

Obviously, in this recent years , the religious talk would be a full house if those speakers are the joke crackers. Most of Malaysian would know who are those figures. I would agree that sense of humors is a good way of delivering messages, especially to the youth. The only thing is that if the digestion of those messages is only towards the jokes, our society may need to be educated more on information processing method. But still , I would still appreciate these kind of sessions compare to those "Gangsters" or "Ghosts" movies that have been Malay Movie Trademarks lately, which I think not adding much value to the development of the human brains if overly exposed to those kind of movie or TV series. I still couldn't figure out what benefits the society can gain from watching these kind of movies. But I surely understand the profits that the producers are getting.

I would consider myself a joker when I entered secondary school. I could stand in front of the class and tell jokes to the students. That was a skill that not everyone posses. I remember that while I was in form one, my class teacher asked me to stand in front and tell stories. I ended up telling an X-Rated jokes. I was then elected to be the class monitor. Maybe this is how politician are chosen too.  But I didn't grow up to be a stand up comedian or politician. When I entered pre-university or Matriculation, I thought that I had to leave all the sense of humors behind. I was wrong. I put myself into trouble of having to adapt to the new character. I wanted to be serious, I wanted to be good in studies and be a fine graduate. I was wrong , I wasn't engineered that way. The character inside me didn't allow me to do that. I got into troubles with my grades. I had no sense of satisfaction. I was thinking to quit and go somewhere else. I had the syndrome of confused identity. One day I met a friend , a friend that taught me to be own myself , a friend that cracks jokes and live happy go lucky. At the same time , we had a teacher , Mr. A whom to me the master of humor educations. He taught us economic subject , but most of the time only the first 10 minutes of the 50 mins class , the rest were all fact of life through his jokes and stories. He changed the way I look at things. My grade had improved gradually and in fact I scored the highest mark for that particular subject. That is where I realize the power of sense of humor, or I would call it the Magic of Sense of Humor.