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Laughing At One's Self

There must, of course, be some psychological study that proves or disproves this, but I'm going out on a very short limb here to say two things are absolute.

1. The ability to laugh at one's self is a sign of a great sense of humor.
2. The ability to laugh at one's self is a sign of confidence and self-esteem.

It appears to be a no-brainer that anyone who can find humor in their own failures, mishaps, or minor accidents, is going to have this ability due to the fact they know this is not and will not be the norm. A certain amount of success is built on failure and I have a hard time imagining these failures could be looked upon with anger and resentment and then provide any sort of positive motivation. Not saying this is absolute, as we're all different, but the majority of us, simply couldn't hold grudges against ourselves and become functioning members of society. Right?

Let's propose another scenario. Comedy itself. Recently, I watched a special with Joe Rogan. In it, he mocks vegans who have pets. He points out the hypocrisy of living life in a nature-loving way, which views animals as our equals, not as our means for sustenance, then looking down at our pets and opening what he described as a '"big can of death." I laughed uproariously, because even the "owning" of a pet is somewhat a delicate balancing act when describing my views and reasoning towards it. I believe in my last blog, I also mentioned laughing alone, as I lay in a pile of mud. I view much of my life as comical, because it is. I like to laugh, especially at others, and in many ways, even more at myself. I believe, an inability to laugh at myself, especially the hypocrisies, would negate my right to laugh at others, especially minor misfortunes.

As is the case with most things in life, I observed something recently which made me chuckle. I watched a comedy special with a comedian I'm hot and cold about, Tom Segura. Segura doesn't say anything you haven't heard before and at times, the eye-roll-inducing obvious punchlines are plentiful, but this time, some of them struck a chord. The reason? Someone, I know recently watched this. I heard them laughing quite a bit, but this in no way made me watch this. Our senses of humor are polar opposites. What I found funny about this person's laughter, was that it made me wonder: Does she realize she's laughing at herself? Does she realize this entire little skit is mocking her way of life? In the end, there's another segment that angrily attacks people who do a certain thing.  I do not know if she found humor in this. I'd like to believe she did, because it was an all-out attack on something she views as valid, despite the comedian ripping apart those who take it seriously. I didn't love the special, but I love just how much of the special attacked this individual personally.

When one chooses to live an ironic life, I believe it's fine for those of us observant folks to take simple joy in it, because God knows they don't get it.

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