To me humor is difficult and it often does not translate well on a public forum. I tend to shy away from using it, especially since I have a rather quirky sense of humor period. I’m always afraid it will be taken the wrong way. Or that what I think is funny is really inappropriate or offensive and will not be funny to others. I have enough trouble with my sense of humor offline. I am always being told I am too sarcastic. But even when it’s not about sarcasm, which I understand is tough because a lot of people don’t care for it, I still find myself having to explain why something is funny or not funny. I often find something funny that others don’t and vice versa. And sometimes I will be prompted to do something that in the moment I think is mildly humorous and appropriate only to discover too late that others vehemently disagree.
A good example is what I like to refer to as “the luxury apartment incident” and what my wife likes to refer to as “the what the hell is wrong with you incident”. They built these luxury apartments in Cote St Luc a town near Montreal, which to me is really part of Montreal, but it’s not considered to be, whatever, that’s besides the point. But anyway my wife wanted to go have a look at the apartment building and talk to someone about renting there. She thought that would be fun. I thought it would be more enjoyable to walk over hot coals or cut a piece of bamboo into strips and stick them under my finger nails but I love to indulge my wife so off we went.
I didn’t understand why she wanted to waste time looking at a place where we could never ever afford to live, but then I don’t get the concept of window shopping either so. Anyway she told me to let her do the talking. When we pulled into the parking lot she repeated that I should refrain from talking and let her handle this outing. I said sure. So during the conversation with the apartment manager, who kept looking at me like I was the human equivalent of shit on his shoe, I asked if they allowed pets. My wife glared at me because I wasn’t supposed to talk. I forgot. Anyway the guy turned his shoe shit gaze on me and said only cats and small dogs. I asked how they came up with the criteria to distinguish small from medium. I don’t remember his answer because my wife kicked me. Anyway he must have thought I looked dubious because he launched into a speech about the importance of small dogs to lonely women, especially the elderly. And how they are not a problem for anyone. Now don’t ask me why I did this because really I’m not clear on my reasoning. I began to bark. I am very good at sounds. I do animals well, but really sounds in general are my forte. So I launched into my impression of a pack of dogs barking. I always thought it was really an impressive talent. Don’t know why I think that because really no one has ever been impressed. And true to form no one was. But anyway we left shortly after that and my wife did not get to actually see an apartment. She was rather pissed and kept asking what part of don’t talk did I not understand. I was like okay I’ll give you that, but you never said anything about barking.
I often find the exact wrong moment to be funny. It's a talent really. I felt myself falling into that trap on the gun control thread and managed, just barely and in the nick of time, to reign myself in. It's big fun for me to run off on one my tangents yukking up a inappropriate storm, but other people get offended and I hear my asshat but somewhat prophetic aunt telling me how it's all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out. I'm best leaving the humor to the professionals.
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