The only thing better than laughing until it hurts is watching people that you love laugh until it hurts.
Laughing with my dad as we watched Tim Conway and Harvey Korman do the “new dentist sketch” might be one of my earliest and favourite memories of this. I spent half my time watching the TV screen and the other half watching Dad. He has an amazingly infectious laugh anyway, but Tim’s antics took it to a whole new level. Watching Korman try to keep a straight face just made everything even funnier.
My mom had a great laugh too. In fact, many times she laughed “until the tears ran down her legs” (if you know what I mean). I can still see her running toward the bathroom giggling after being pranked by the “can-you-balance-a-coin-on-your-nose” trick. Most of the time though, she was likely to be the one making you laugh. Singing “Chickery Chick, cha-la, cha-la” while standing on a footstool in the middle of the living room is one favourite memory. Another, although it didn’t seem that funny at the time, was when she flipped the main breaker during a Stanley Cup playoff game that dad and I were watching.
Seeing my kids laugh is pretty special. Cy, Britt and Makari have certainly heard more than their share of “dad jokes”. They didn’t really have a choice because I had years of practice telling recycled silly jokes to generations of kids at five different schools.
Reading to Makari at bedtime is something I still miss. As I read “chapter books” (that’s what she called books without pictures) I loved to watch how her eyes and face reacted as imagination turned words into pictures. I would try to match my voice to suit each character and the results would often have us both belly laughing. Her laugh is deep and reminds me of my grandmother, and her namesake, Kari.
Her YouTube channel, and her reporting for Black Press in Victoria tells me that her sense of humour has grown up as fast as she has.
Britt has always been a wit. She still has an incredible way with words whether they be written, sung, off-the-cuff or said with an accent of some kind. Howard Gardner suggests that humour is considered a form of intelligence and Britt proves it. I am sure there must be times when she credits me for at least some of her sense of humour?? I tried calling her the other day and it turned into the following string of texts:
My son might be the most like me. Cy is a storyteller. Always ready to string a line, he never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. For example, when Cy was an infant he had major stomach surgery which left a significant six-inch scar across his belly. For years that scar has allowed him to impress friends with stories about near-fatal bull rides and shark attacks. Six years of travelling the globe allowed him to spread BS world-wide! His laugh is similar to my dad’s and I love to hear it. Recently I “borrowed” a picture from the internet and passed it off as my own in a group-text to my family. I said that my wife, Deb, had asked me to “peel half the potatoes and boil them”.
I guess this “dad joke” struck Cy’s funny bone and he literally laughed out loud. I have watched this video over and over:
The next generation arrived just over two years ago in the form of our granddaughter, Cove. She is an active little girl who already has a keen eye for what is funny. Her smile lights up a room and her laugh is already spectacular!
And finally, I have to thank Deb for never failing to laugh at my jokes or stories regardless of how many times she’s heard them. In fact, she blames me for the beautiful laugh lines around her eyes!
*Below are the links to two of my dad’s favourite all time “laugh til it hurts” clips, as well as the link to Makari’s YouTube Channel…
Click to see Tim Conway as the dentist!
Montney Boy 