SO FUNNY I FORGOT TO LAUGH
I’m afraid I’ve lost my humors.

Granted, I’m tired this morning, but be that as it may, I have to tell you that as I sit here and read the daily newspaper comics, I find the vast majority of the “funnies” just aren’t.

What happened?

In the old, old, old, old, olden days, when I was a wee Tuna, I read Peanuts. It was funny. OK, it wasn’t knee-slapping funny, but it was humorous in an innocent late 60s kind of way. Back in the time when you could believe innocence and think it was cute. You know what I mean, because we all still watch A Charlie Brown Christmas every December. It’s hard to believe, but that holiday tradition was made way back in 1965, when funny worked with cute and innocent and poignant.

Sad to say, even Peanuts ceased to be funny in any way shape or form later in its life. Cute and innocent wore out its welcome and somehow Charlie Brown and Linus never worked with hip, biting and ironic. Unfunny as it may be, I still read Peanuts out of respect for a venerable tradition, even though it’s a little squicky to be served a daily dose of dead-guy’s rehash.

In high school, several of us grew an unnatural attachment to a really unfunny comic called Nancy. We’d drag the newspaper in to school every day, and have a Nancy read-aloud session. The rule was just read – no visuals allowed – and then laugh. It went something like this:

Nancy: Oh, Aunt Fritzi, did you worry much when I was away?
Aunt Fritzi: I almost went crazy Nancy – I cried myself sick – and I couldn’t eat or sleep.
Nancy: Gosh it was awful mean of me to cause Aunt Fritzi all that worry. I really ought to punish myself for being so bad. This is the worst punishment I can think of.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA <---Caps lock!

Yeah. See? Not. Funny. <---Leaned over

Thankfully, my boyfriend tells me I’m not alone. NOBODY thinks Nancy is funny, and that is precisely why we all read it.

Fortunately the 80s and 90s brought us some classic comics we could hang our hat on. Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side and Doonesbury were the staples of my cartoon humors. Now The Far Side lives on, memorialized in daily calendars across the nation, while Calvin only makes unauthorized appearances from the back windows of pickup trucks. Doonesbury seems to have lost its political edge, and I’m still waiting for the return of Bloom County.

But now we’re back to blahdom. Cathy is rehashy and Garfield is gah. Were it not for Dilbert, I wouldn’t even crack open the comic page. Boondocks and Get Fuzzy have their moments, but honestly, if I looked through every comic strip HERE or HERE, I don’t think I could find five that make me laugh.

Maybe I’m old. Maybe I just don’t get it. Or maybe, there isn’t anything to get. But on those days when I lose my humors, I don’t worry too much. After all, I think Calvin pretty much had it right when he said, “You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help.”

Maybe I’ll laugh tomorrow.
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