A love of laughter built into every period of life.
Jordan Tomlinson (he/him) // Letters Editor
Scarlett Side (she/her) // Illustrator
Laughter, comedy, an ever-changing art form. While many would write it off as easy and simple, its complexity and importance extends further than most may think. For as long as we’ve been alive, laughter really has always been the best medicine. While, of course, the act of laughter can improve our mental state, boosting our mood and what not, it can also improve our physical being as well. It stimulates heart, lungs, muscles, etc and soothes you. Also can boost your immune system? Huh. What a wonder the body is.
Of course, I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t have a keen interest in the subject. I’ve been a huge fan of comedic television and sketch comedy for as long as I can remember. I grew up without cable, we only had my mom’s dvd box-sets to pass the time. So my childhood television memories are all of ‘ALF’, ‘The Simpsons’, and ‘Married… With Children’. My dad made the strong choice of raising me on a musical combination of metal, nerdcore rap (can’t all be winners), and comedy music like ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic and The Lonely Island. These tickling forms of media really defined me as I grew up, having odd references and quotes that even I didn’t understand.
Being mostly raised around my mom and her family, their dark comedic approach to life really helped frame how I saw the world. They’d jab at each other, laugh at the news, and walk around with this intense self awareness which led to the best jokes. I remember asking my mother about it one day, curious as to why she was laughing about something tragic that had only happened a week prior.
“Honey, if people don’t laugh, they’ll cry and who wants to do that?”
She followed that up with the usual motherly jibber jabber (always let your feelings out, it’s okay to cry, immaterial, burn rubber, etc) but she had a point. I had never realized how much that moment stuck with me until very recently.
Entering university was a major switch for me socially, coming from a graduating class of 42-ish integrated arts students that I’d known my whole pre-teen and teen years. Diving headfirst into a sea of people I knew nothing about. I learned quickly that despite what I’d previously believed, I had terrible social skills, I was very bad at reading people and did not know anything about who I was in the grand scheme of being seen. Within that thick fog of social anxiety that covered me throughout that first year, the only little light that I saw flashed on anytime I made someone laugh. Even a tiny giggle became the highlight of my day. Those small moments were really my saving grace and I hope they meant something to my classmates. Even if I didn’t fix their day completely or even if they never thought about it again, I could walk away knowing that I’d brought someone a small amount of joy and relief.