Anger Addiction Caused by Humor: A Cautionary Tale

Caution: Humor May Alter your Life Radically

The other day my friend Carla Marie Beyonce Anne asked me why I always seem so angry. I looked in the mirror and realized that she was right. One reason might be that people take advantage of me so often: like Joey, who spends his basically piddling life on his almost puny (like him)computer. For example, he told me about something that he saw on the Internet the other day. He said, "Sheila Betty Jewell, did you see that incredible news story about those famous artists on Yagoogle yesterday?" Unaware, I replied, "what?" "Well," he said, "a consortium, or something like that, of international art historians think that they may have discovered some important evidence about the artists like Rembrandt, Goya, and El Greco." "What did they discover about them, Joey?" "Apparently, these three artists, and maybe even other ones, sometimes in secret might have used paint-by-the number art sets to create some of their most wonderous masterpieces." Are you serious?" I asked Joey. "What do you think, Sheila?" he answered. "I really don't know, Joey." "C'mon, Sheila, it's a joke. That's what jokes are. You pick a topic and say something 'exaggerated' about it and try to fool someone into believing the information is true. If the person believes you, you start laughing and saying, "I was teasing, knucklehead. I can't believe that you fell for it." Moral: This is one way that people like (me) Sheila become anger addicts and develop straight hair and that angry sneer almost 24/7that you see in my above self-sketch . It is because of Joey, the little rat/beast/ fink, who uses humor to put other people, like me and other innocents, down. In addition, the chances are very slight (.000067% or less) that people like me (remember, Sheila) will ever marry people like Joey, the RBF, and if we accidentally lose our minds and commit matrimony with them, this is what might result: Sometimes the people like Joey, suddenly and without warning, disappear permanently. Then, the people like me begin to smile more often and get our hair done more frequently in soft, non-tense girly curls. Maybe, we even get a new self-sketch And I'm not joking, my friends. By: Bob Hoff © Bob Hoff, 2009

Grandson Writes on Planner and Quotes, and Background of Woody Allen

Can you tell from a glance what this is? Probably not, right?

This morning our 44-month old grandson was working in the study with me and he added this to my planner. Not sure what it means. Perhaps, he was mocking my habdwriting. no?

You may have noticed that I cropped the text picture of my planned rather closely. Why? Because it is a "personal" planner I guess. Really, my planner's contents sort of rocks for a Retired Man, but we have to be careful what we put on ye ol' Internet, now don't we?

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Woody Allen: One of My Personal Favorite Comics of All Time

Woody Allen quotations at The Quotation Page

Scene from Woody Allen's 1975 movie Annie Hall




Annie Hall at IMDB

# 133 of Top 250 Movies at IMDB

Top 250 Movies at IMDb



Diane Keaton at Wikipedia

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© Bob Hoff, 2009

Evan Esar, a Humor Hero of Mine, and Google Humor Video Search Engine

Evan Esar is the author of many books on humor. Evan Esar at Amazon He lived from 1899 (some sources have different birth dates) until 1995. He was a humor historian, a promoter of humor, and a compiler of humor, who illustrated his research findings and his postulated humor theories with concrete examples of the type of humor that he wrote about.

Currently, I am reading his The Humor of Humor. I have his Quips and Quotes, The Comic Dictionary, A Dictionary of Hunorous Quotations and Encyclopedia of Humor. I open and scan through them frequently, and have done so for years. I love humor and he is a wonderful source

Though I know little about Mr. Esar, he is a major Humor Hero to me. I plan to quote examples from his books throughout my Keeping Tabs on Humor blog. Many of his books for sale are scarce, but start with Amazon and Barnes and Noble, then try other on-line booksellers.

He also shows up at on-line "Quotation Collection" pages. For example, Evan Esar at quotationspage.com

Suggested Humor Link on this post: Google Comic Video Search Who are Some of Your Favorite Humorists Who Might be on this Search Engine? I searched and Found: Robin Williams Steve Martin Ernie Kovacs Dick Cavett Woody Allen Suzanne Pleshette Elliot Gould Lucille Ball Bill Cosby Monty Python The Three Stooges 30 Rock Tina Fey Sarah Silverman Jerry Lewis Jerry Seinfeld Johnny Carson Ernie Kovacs Jay Leno David Letterman (Including an interview>with John McCain) Stephen Colbert (Including roast of Presient Bush) Jon Stewart Conan O'Brien Larry Gelbart Jonathon Winters Don Knotts Don Rickles Steve Allen Andy Griffith Show Charlie Brown Kurt Vonnegut ...and so it goes... Why not try to look up some of your favorites?

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From the book The Healing Power of Humor by Allen Klein come a couple head shakers:

• A man in California won $9 million in the lottery because he forgot his wedding anniversary and played the wrong humber.
• An airline lost a man's baggage; nothing new of funny about that, except he was the only passsenger on the plane.
• The National Planning Association was not sure where its where their next year's convention will be.

(p:69-70)

Product Description

The ability to laugh at annoyances, crises, and even outright disasters can literally save your life. The author presents a series of proven techniques for overcoming the negative effects of loss, setbacks, upsets, disappointments, trials, and tribulations.

From the Author

I wrote this book after my wife died. Her humor helped me get through the three difficult years of her terminal illness. Hundreds of people have told me how it helped them to not only deal with life-challenging issues but everyday trials and tribulations as well. It must have because the book is now in 24th printing and seventh language translation. (as of 02/01) For more, check out allenklein.com

The Healing Power of Humor at Amazon.com

From Mr. Jollytologist Blog (Allen Klein)"Ten Tips for Finding Humor in Turbulent Times"

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© Bob Hoff, 2009

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail at IMDB

British
1975
91 minutes
I first saw on PBS and could not stop laughing. BH

#64 in TOP 250 at Top 250 at IMDb.com

BUBBA HO-TEP: Movie

Released: 2002
Rated "R"
92 Minutes

The premise of the movie is that Elvis Presley and J.F.K. never died as the world believed. Rather, both men traveled separate paths on life's journey in their later years, with both arriving at the same rest home in Mud Creek, East Texas.

Bruce Campbell's, playing the role of Elvis, sounds incredibly similar to the "King." He even has a tad of resemblance to Elvis. I really enjoyed Campbell's imitation of Elvis's rock and roll moves up on the stage.

You might wonder how a retired park ranger (moi) would decide to watch a movie named BUBBA HO-TEP. The answer is simple. My youngest son Erik, who goes to college, works part-time, has a girlfriend, and does a blog on horror movies, loves watching movies, putting much thought into the actors, directors, the plots, and movie quality(or lack of it).

Erik has a sense of humor and likes to recommend comedies to me, but he also likes movies that go beyond the laughs like Forrest Gump. He also read the book Forrest Gump Winston Groom and will soon start another book by the same author entitled Better Times Than These, a novel about the Vietnam War because he likes Groom's writing style.

In short, I value Erik's knowledge and recommendations about lots of things in life, movies just being one of them. So when he recommended BUBBA HOTEP, I was immediately on board.

Back to BUBBA HO-TEP, throughout the movie Elvis recalls his life in a series of flashbacks. At one point, fed up with his fame and the demands being imposed on him and the unnecessary complexity of his life (as well as the drug scene), Elvis choose to seek a more modest life: to do so he exchanges his identity with the best Elvis "impersonator" he knows, a pretend rock and roller named Sebastian Haff. In the process, Elvis finds his new more modest life of being an "Elvis impersonator" more to his liking.

Elvis grows to prefer his new life to his previously annoying one. Even though, he is now, Sebastian Haff, Elvis impersonator, women in the audience, continue to throw themselves at him. (I guess that HAFF an Elvis is better than none) Life is now better for Haff, the real Elvis, until the fatal night: during a hip swiveling, gyrating performance by Haff (remember, Elvis really impersonating himself) the legendary rock and roll singer throws out his hip, causing him to fly headfirst into the audience. The injury results in the end of his performing career and so begins his decline and the start of his new path to the Mud Creek rest home.

At the rest home, movie viewers discover the aging Elvis to be quite a philosopher as he ponders how he went from being the King to being in a East Texas rest home, so distant in time and space from the "Big Time" where the King once reigned.

Elvis ponders how he went from being the King to being in the rest home, so far from the "top" where he once had been. He also reflects on the loss of the love of his former wife Priscilla and the love of his daughter, Lisa Marie.

He even wonders if, at the end of a person's life, does anything really matter? Clearly, Elvis has lost the sparkle of his former life, and everything at the rest home reminds him of that daily, including the death of his roommate.

Soon thereafter Elvis meets a fellow rest home resident who claims to J.F.K. who survived Dallas and was hidden by the government for security. The two men realize that their jobs, Elvis the entertainer and J.F.K. the President kept them from being the fathers and husbands that they would have preferred to have been.

Elvis and J.F.K, accepting of each other from their very first meeting, become friends.

But as you well know, my friend, movies without conflict don't even qualify as stories(how many of our former English teachers labored to get that concept in our brains?).

The conflict in the movie BUBBA HO-TEP arises from three sources: (1) the flying scorpions(and Elvis using his martial skills (a great send up of the real Elvis's martial arts) and a bed pan to fight back, (2) the deaths of several rest home residents, and (3), oh yeah, the arrival of BUBBA HO-TEP, a mummy from ancient Egypt.

Elvis with his walker and J.F.K with his mechanized wheelchair must devise and execute a battle plan to rid East Texas of the vicious, insensitive, swaggering bully BUBBA HO-TEP, who sucks the souls out of humans through one of the major orifices. Only by subduing the mummy can Elvis and J.F.K save the lives of their fellow rest home residents

***For more on this concept of "soul-sucking and Egyptian mummies, see the movie.

84-year old Ossie Davis, as an older African-American J.F.K, does a good job of portraying the American President who escaped his fate in Dallas. Why a Black Man portrays J.F.K. is explained very logically early in the movie.This movie is based on short story by Joe R. Lansdale.

By the way, see the Wilipedia link below on Mr. Davis to see a quick review of the diverse and prestigious careers/achievements of the man.

I gave this movie three out of four stars. Coincidentally, so did movie critic Roger Ebert. I hope that he didn't copy me.

Bruce Campbell Movies at Roger Ebert.com

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BUBBA HOTEP at imdb.com

Bruce Campbell at Wikipedia

Ossie Davis at Wikipedia

Elvis at Wikipedia

Elvis in 1970, age 35
Photo from Wikipedia.org
HO-TEP photo in Egyptian
Archives for protection
until 4018 (unless extended)

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© Bob Hoff, 2009