THE ART OF HUMOR
Laughing presents
This book has God, Day 4, written all over it!
© 2013 Soph Laugh
If I have unknowingly violated any copyright rules, chalk it up to the fact that I wrote this book on my days off.Mondays are my day off... ‘nuff said!i
The Art of Humor
First, I would like to thank Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380 - 1459), the Italian scholar, Papal secretary, and Renaissance hu-manist credited with recovering, copying, and disseminating a great number of classical texts that he discovered in German and French monastic librar-ies. Though he is not here to appreciate my gratitude on account of his be-ing dead and all, I do share his premise that humor can be savored without corrupting one’s soul. As a member of the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS), the scholarly and professional organization dedicated to the ad-vancement of humor research, I would like to personally thank the many scholars from around the world, past and present, who have taken it upon themselves to share their insightful contributions in the field of aesthetics. From them, I continue to learn and contemplate concepts that might not oth-erwise cross my mind or come up during my own exploration of humor. I would also like to thank the San Francisco Public Library for pre-serving Nat Schmulowitz’s (1889 - 1966) Collection of Wit & Humor, some 20,000 volumes and 160 periodical titles, in more than 35 lan- guages and dialects. This collection, which spans more than four centuries worth of humorous and sometimes scandalous stories and tales, is an unde-niable testament of the universal importance humanity places on enjoy-ment.
A special shout-out goes out to my many friends and followers on Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter, people whose opinions, thoughts, insights, and interests have notably shaped my understanding of what other people consider “funny”. An extra special, heartfelt thank you is reserved for my family and loved ones, who have long since encouraged me to publish what I write in-stead of hiding my stories, poems, jokes, and ruminations away in that big, plastic storage bin. All I have to say is you better be prepared to buy ALL the copies that don’t sell! Finally, I’d like to thank the universe for giving me a second chance at life in my present biological mechanism. For anyone who has survived a major accident or illness - or in my case, both - humor is indeed good medi-cine. Not only is it therapeutic to laugh, but a humorous perspective on life really does bring us closer, lighten our burdens, inspire hope, increase our insight, and keep us grounded, focused, alert, and happy. “Laughter is a universal language that stimulates both sides of the brain. It allows us to get messages quicker and remember them longer. We all learn more when we’re having fun.” ~Soph Laugh.
Without further ado, this is what I learned while I was having a lit-tle bit of well-deserved FUN of my own...
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Dedication