Dislocated Funny Bone

I went out tonight with Mel and Kristy to see "Holiday" (coincidentally Tara and Steve were there too, hurray!). Watching the movie, and in particular one section, reminded me of something that I don't often remember: I have an odd sense of humour.

I don't mean that I don't have a sense of humour, that I don't get most jokes, or that people don't get most of mine, but that every so often something that no one else thinks is funny strikes me as deeply hilarious. I don't mean 'hee hee' or 'haa haa', I mean clutching your sides, tears rolling down your face, gasping for breath laughter.

When this happens in a small group it's not quite as noticeable, because often my friends will be laughing with me (or at me, whatever) and generally someone will be accused of "breaking Karen". When it happens in a movie theatre, however, that's an entirely different story. Generally the trigger is something that no one else seems to find funny at all, or maybe worth a smile, but I see something different in it and break out in uncontrollable laughter. The usual reaction to this is that the people closest to me look around the theatre to see if everyone else is laughing, to see if there was something they missed, then they look to see if anyone else is laughing, anyone at all. Once they have assured themselves that they are, in fact, normal, and that I am the one who is weird, they then either a) laugh at me or b) pass me some licorice in an attempt to shut me up.

I'll give you an example. In tonight's movie, there was a character who discovered that his significant other was not, as she said, out of town, but was in fact in town and by the way was banging some guy (come on, like you didn't see it coming!) His reaction included the following line, "I sent her Christmas present to Santa Fe! I waited in line at FedEx for half an hour to make sure it got to her on time!" (I can't even type it without laughing). Okay, did anyone else find this funny? Anything beyond a 'ho ho' or a 'hoooeee'? Is anyone out there shaking their head in confusion?

I have to say that explaining why something is funny kind of destroys the humour, but I will make an attempt. Firstly, when I have something really bad happen to me and I'm truly miserable about it, when I finally hit rock bottom I have a knee jerk reaction to say something funny and make myself laugh (I call it Karen's "automatic bounce-back mechanism") and I'll end up laughing and sobbing at the same time. Secondly, when I have been fooled and embarrassed and treated badly, I will focus on the little details of my idiocy, just like the above character did (He spent a half-hour waiting in line to send her gift to Santa Fe while she was down the street doing the mambo with Jimbo). Thirdly, the joke was on her because she was too busy getting busy to get her Christmas gift. Also, for some unknown reason I associate Santa Fe with chicken and so when I pictured the package travelling to Santa Fe away from the slutty girlfriend, the package had a tiny cartoon chicken inside it.

See? See the funny? Oh, never mind. Maybe I have a dislocated funny bone.

Pass the licorice.