A YouTube post appeared on my Facebook site featuring Flip Wilson a black comedian who performed back in the 70’s.  I always enjoyed Flip’s sense of humor so I decided to watch it. Flip was performing on the Johnny Carson Show, a show that I used to watch faithfully every weekday night from 10:30 until midnight.

Flip Wilson made his entrance smoking a cigarette which I’d forgotten was a common practice for performers to do back then.  Also, smoking was a common occurrence in TV episodes and movies.  Flip begins to tell of an experience he had while riding on a train recently.  As he took his seat on the train he noticed the lady sitting next to him had a baby sitting on her lap.  He glanced only briefly at the child but long enough to recognize it was a very ugly baby!  Several minutes later a drunk came staggering down the aisle, stopped in front of the lady, stared and snorted, “Lady, that is an ugly baby!”

The lady gasped and shouted, “Why, I have never been so insulted in all my life!” and she reached up and pulled the cord to stop the train.   That resulted in the conductor, the ticket taker and several other train officials to gather around the mother and her baby and find out what the problem was.

After explaining what had happened the conductor said, “Young lady we are very sorry that this insult took place.  We will kick the drunk off the train. But we would like to make things right with you.  Perhaps you could come with us to the dining car and you can enjoy a dinner on us?”

The lady agreed and they walked to the dining car where the conductor introduced the lady to the head waiter.  The waiter responded,  “We can certainly prepare you a great meal and we might even be able to find a banana for your monkey.”

For some reason that monologue struck me as hilarious, eye watering hilarious.  And of course in our politically correct world I immediately felt a little guilty but how freeing it was to be able to laugh like I did.

Today we would have had to be concerned about that smoking cigarette,  had we offended the drunk, what race was the baby, was the lady married, what was her religion and would a free meal in the dining car be legal?  We need our sense of humor back!  Our politically correct world has robbed us of our sense of humor.  I realized that as I laughed uncontrollably at the punch line.

I had to be sure it wasn’t just me so I retold the story to my coffee drinking buddies this morning at Subway.  They all reacted in the same way with hysterical laughter.  Their laughter and my laughter reminded me how much I miss the humor of yesteryears.  Telling a joke was so much less complicated then and safer.

In fact I heard just yesterday how important a good belly laugh is each day.  Scientists compared it to participating in a physical activity such as jogging or rowing.  My teaching instincts are coming out now as I’m giving you your assignment for the week.  Enjoy a daily belly laugh with someone you love.  And, no, it doesn’t replace the other conditioning exercises you may already be doing. 🙂

That reminds me, the other day I was looking through some old pictures taken of me when I was around nine months old.  There was this one picture of me sitting in my aunt’s lap and I was eating a banana!  For heaven’s sake…….you aren’t thinking what I’m thinking are you?  But I was a cute baby!  My Mom said so! 🙂

Until next time.