How To Be Funny

On occasion, people tell me that I'm a funny guy. I've always wanted to be able to make people laugh, but it hasn't always come easy. When I was in school, I failed more than I succeeded. So, if I'm funny now, I owe it to the lessons I learned while growing up.

I work with teenagers for a living. I get to see them grow physically, spiritually and emotionally. It really is a joy. Part of being a youth minister is fielding some pretty strange questions. One night, coming back from a youth trip, a young guy asked me, "How can I be funny?" Pulling one of my own, self-taught lessons out of my mental files, here's what I told him:

"Gordy (names changed to protect the innocent), when you try to be funny, you spread it way too thin. Picture your 'funny' as a liquid in a bucket. It's your bucket, Gordy. No one else's. The 'funny' that's inside the bucket is yours too. It might have been someone else's at one time, but it's yours now. See, you've got this 'funny' in a bucket and you're squirting it all over the place. It's getting all over everything. No one takes the time to realize, 'Hey! This is funny!,' because they're too busy wiping it off. What you've got to do is wait until the bucket is full. Once you've accumulated enough 'funny' in your bucket, you're ready to pour it out. Wait until an opportune time and let 'em have it. Just dump that 'funny' all over the place. The sheer volume of the bucket dump will force people to realize, 'Hey! This is funny!' You see, Gordy, it's simply the difference between a squirt and a dump."

Gordy still quirts a little too much, but I believe he'll get the hang of it some day. Sometimes, when I hear him trying to be funny too much, I'll ask him if his bucket is full. Most of the time, his answer is no. I hope I helped him out a little. I'm not sure if God cares if we are funny people of not, but when we get the hang of this "funny" business, it sure makes things a lot more fun.