It鈥檚 easy during this global pandemic to become depressed. I鈥檝e watched my daughter reduced to tears because she couldn鈥檛 attend her college graduation ceremony at 麻豆原创. I鈥檝e heard from friends struggling to teach their kids at home, while other family members and friends lose their jobs.
Even worse, I鈥檝e watched news stories about critically ill patients who are denied final moments with their families. News stories pound home the doom and gloom 24 hours per day. Restaurants, gyms, salons and retail stores have been reopening and causing a whole new set of problems.
Humor can help strengthen our resolve and help us get through this crisis. Really.
It seems like there鈥檚 nothing to laugh about anymore. But maybe we should start laughing. Like immediately. Because humor can help strengthen our resolve and help us get through this crisis. Really.
I remember being about 10 and watching the old M*A*S*H TV show with my father. I asked, 鈥淒ad, all these people are dying and the doctors keep making jokes.鈥� He looked at me and answered, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how they get through it.鈥�
Wow. That resonated with me. My father was a New York City police officer, and I鈥檇 overheard him speak with a dark sense of humor about the arrests he made. It鈥檚 how he got through them.
So while we鈥檙e waiting for a vaccine and even a cure, we need to write our own prescriptions for laughter.
Even the most casual of Google searches yields a ton of research on the physical and emotional benefits of humor. Laughing stimulates organs, relieves stress responses, and improves your immune system. (Take that, COVID-19!) Laughing soothes tension through stimulating circulation and helps in muscle relaxation. Having a good laugh can even relieve pain, increase personal satisfaction and, of course, improve your mood.
In a difficult situation, laughing helps you connect with others. This is what my father was trying to tell me.
My father also said you don鈥檛 have to be a good-looking guy to pick up women; you just have to be funny. What he wanted to say was, 鈥淟ook, Peter, you鈥檙e just not that good looking, so you better work on those one-liners, otherwise you鈥檙e in for a world of rejection.鈥�
While quarantined at home, many of us have rediscovered our crafts and hobbies and the agony of a 2,000 piece puzzle missing the final piece. But have you put laughter on your to-do list? Why not? The website wikiHow has a 12-step guide to making someone laugh (including yourself). Tell a joke, use puns, be witty or sarcastic, use one-liners and comebacks, and be self-deprecating. Do impressions, use slapstick comedy, parody something, and the list goes on. Perhaps your humble narrator has used some of these techniques in the very column you鈥檙e reading鈥�.
What鈥檚 more, in both my university teaching career and as an indoor cycling instructor, humor has been a primary tool to help my students forget about the agony of learning or the torture of exercise. In academia, especially in face-to-face classes, I use accents and hyperbole to keep students awake. In a bad British accent, I might raise my voice and ask, 鈥淔or ten thousand dollars and an A in the course, who knows what the critical path is in game design?鈥� As the hands go up, I might add, 鈥淎re you willing to state your answer in the voice of Yoda from Star Wars? Only the best impressions will receive the prizes. All others will immediately fail the course.鈥�
In cycle class, I tell them: 鈥淭onight we鈥檙e going to burn one billion calories.鈥� I鈥檝e said this so many times that the class finishes the sentence for me. During the ride I might ask, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 wrong, poor baby? Did your hair get messed up? Are you uncomfortable? Are you sweating? Then it鈥檚 working!鈥�
I know. None of this is easy. Some days you don鈥檛 know whether to laugh or cry.
Go for the laugh. Every time. Laugh your head off. Laugh your way to the grocery store beneath your mask. Do some LOLing as my college-aged daughters might say. Watch stand-up comedians on your streaming service.
You鈥檙e building up your immune system. You鈥檙e learning how to get through it. That鈥檚 right! We鈥檒l show this nasty virus who gets the last laugh.
Peter Telep is a senior instructor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of English. He can be reached at Peter.Telep@ucf.edu.
The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.
