After several submissions to places that publish funny stuff, and the corresponding rapid-fire rejections, I am starting to come to the realization that I might not be that funny.
I feel like there was a time when I was funny. Like, back in high school… maybe. But that was a long time ago and thinking back, it’s probably more likely people were just too polite to tell me that I was annoying.
Or it could be the soul-crushing life-sentence of working a regular eight-to-five job that took the wind out of the sails of the good ship Fun Times. You would think an Engineer with a sense of humor would be a breath of fresh air for most companies, but in reality people just think you’re weird when you tell a joke while holding a schematic.
Or maybe I am weird. I’m a grown man with a Steam account who can quote Rick and Morty and I also built my own robot arm making parts via my 3D printer. Yes, that’s all cool stuff, but not when you’re old. And no, I’m not telling you my age, but for reference, I took my daughter to Open Sauce last year (a YouTube “maker” event) and I didn’t think I was that much over the average age until someone congratulated my daughter on getting her grandpa to come.
I used to go out of my way to be funny at work. I remember a time when I bought one of those monstrously oversized Valentine’s Day cards, signed it “Love, Richard” and left it for Tony our IT guy. Richard was our salesman that always reminded me of the desperate guy on Glenn Gary Glenn Ross who rambled on about the leads, which made the joke even funnier to me. I think Richard was actually kind of pissed about the whole thing. That also made it funnier.
Or there was the time I sent out a Christmas card that was just a sad picture of me with my cat, where I wore shooter glasses and had on a fake mustache and intentionally did a bad job of photo-shopping in a background that was way too nice to be my house. The day after people got the card in the mail, I received a standing ovation at work. So, yes, that was funny. Okay, weird funny, but funny. At least to everyone but my future wife. We were dating at the time, so I sent a card to her. She didn’t think it was funny at all and later told me she was questioning going out with me after that.
And just when I am rethinking my ability to be funny, wouldn’t you know it, one of my humorous pieces gets picked up by Chortle: Things my lawnmower does better than me.
So the whole point of this is that everyone has doubts. We just need to keep pushing through and trust we are doing the right things. And if we find out we’re not, hey, at least we are learning something along the way.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
-James
Breaking Into The Craft 
Hey James,
Laughed out loud (showing my age intentionally by not abbreviating it) at the “Love, Richard” story. Great photo, too. People who can pull off making work a little more enjoyable are a gift.
Sadly, I feel the same way about my progression from funny to not. I once wrote a song about a coworker to the music of “Long December” by the Counting Crows. That passed muster in the office. Also I wrote a poem about our bosses and company rules using the theme and rhyme scheme to “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and they posted it in Corporate HQ (better still, I wasn’t fired).
In the last fifteen years, I feel like I’ve run dry, except to myself. Though I’m to blame for moving to Germany. While it’s not quite true about the German sense of humor, it sort of is Plus, jokes and impressions don’t survive the language and culture barriers.
As we get older, I guess we just spend more and more time with fewer and fewer people. Those people (spouses, children) get used to our jokes. What was once endearing, grates. Don’t let this trick you into thinking you’re not funny! Just enjoy the laughs more when you get them. (Plus, deep down, they really want to laugh, they’re just trying not to.)
In the meantime, I’ve been working on my Helmut Kohl impression in the hopes of bringing smiles to septuagenarians here in northern Germany. Results so far? Nein.
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Thanks Km,
Your comment made my day. I laughed out loud (also intentionally refusing to abbreviate). I’d pay good money to hear that “Long December” parody. And the poem making it to Corporate HQ? That’s legendary status. Good to hear you were not fired.
I feel the truth in what you said about humor and aging in how our audience shrinks and becomes dangerously accustomed to our material. My “family has started finishing my punchlines for me, “dad” jokes don’t go quite as far as they used to, which I’m choosing to see as a sign of deep connection rather than comedic decline.
As to your Helmut Kohl impression for the northern German septuagenarian set, that sounds like it deserves its own one-man show. I can see the posters now: “Kohl as Ice: One Man, One Impression”
Jokes aside, I love the spirit in your message: that the laughs still matter, even when they’re quieter, rarer, or just between us and our mirrors. Thanks for sharing your story. It’s oddly comforting to know there are others out there still trying to sneak humor into the day, across decades and time zones.
Take care,
-James
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