A joke prompt to start off the month on April Fool’s Day!   I’m hoping we get a great response.  Lord knows we need a laugh these days.

I wish I could think of something humorous, but I’m terribly not spontaneous that way. Some people have told me I’m funny as in amusing, but also as in weird.  I am amazed at naturally quick-witted people.  I can’t tell jokes.  I forget punchlines or worse – I start off with the punchline, and as you can imagine, its downhill from there.

If I’m in a conversation and something strikes me, I can be funny with an off the cuff flip answer of sarcasm or cynicism, double meanings, or a pun.  Sometimes, I’ll break into a  song, jingle, or tv program theme.  Maybe it’s the result of watching too many musicals in my lifetime.  Doesn’t everyone burst into song if the moment is right?

Try as I might, I can’t think of a joke right now, not even a corny “dad joke,” not even with help from Google!

I went through a phase when I was obsessed with old radio and tv comedy shows. I had to do my own research to compare if the acts were really funny or just the nostalgia that made them classics.  It continues to amaze me that these entertainers can be so hilarious without spewing obscene graphic language.  Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand that there are situations when only a powerful four-letter word will do, but sometimes I watch these stand-ups – male or female, and it seems they have no talent or imagination, so they go in for the shock value.

I still enjoy listening to George Burns and Gracie Allen, Red Skelton, and of course, the incomparable “I Love Lucy.”   One of my all-time favorite comedy routines, though, is Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First?”  They began performing it in the 1930s, and about 55 years later, in the 1980s and 90s, our local radio station WCCM would play it every year on the Opening Day of the baseball season.   I’ve loved it ever since.

Thanks for doing the Discover Prompts this month.  I hope it will help me get back on the saddle.