Laughter Is Not Always the Best Medicine

As we walked into Mass this morning, my housemate Brian moved anxiously to make sure he got hand sanitizer before entering the church. I snickered. He said, “What?” angrily, and I said, “Nothing.”

My sense of humor is a gift from God, but as with all other gifts, it must be exercised appropriately and with discretion.

I often laugh at things that make me uncomfortable, and I admittedly find it funny to make others uncomfortable with my sense of humor sometimes. This means sometimes verbalizing thoughts that would probably be better left unsaid. I allow myself to verbalize them, believing that laughter is good for us.  The best medicine, as some say. But where do we draw the line? When is laughter not only not the best medicine but poison?

There are times during our morning or evening prayer that either Brian or I will begin to laugh. We half-heartedly try to stop and usually go on with prayer as if nothing has happened, leaving us both with lingering inappropriate images and ideas in our heads. We do not renounce this interruption to prayer as we do sexual or angry thoughts. We don’t see the evil in our laughter as easily as we see it in other areas.

I grew up in a household and neighborhood full of sarcasm and harsh humor. It became the norm for me. The sarcasm and harshness stung at first, but over time, we came to associate it with fun. And in small doses, it can be. But when it becomes the norm, harm is done.

Racial jokes are harsh. They require demeaning others to get a laugh. Sexual jokes pervert the sexual act and bring into the public space something that should be kept private. Mean-spirited humor jabs at soft spots in others to get a laugh.

In small doses with people we know intimately, these can be ok but when this becomes the norm in public, it brings about a coarseness, and many feelings are hurt. Hurt feelings are often hidden behind laughter from the butt of the joke and also from the joke teller. The pain's hiddenness turns it into bitterness and anger that eventually come out, impacting all of society.

So we who like to laugh must learn to discern, before speaking, what is appropriate and what isn’t. We must learn to see the devil using this gift from God to hurt rather than to endear.

Human-Written, AI Spell-Checked 5/8/21 AD

Image from WIX AI Image Creator