To make sure the fries were done I took one off the tray and I bit into it. I winced and made a strange noise when I burnt the roof of my mouth and spit I out the fry. Maxfield and Wyatt cracked up again with some serious belly laughs.
I suddenly had a moment of clarity and discovered a universal truth. Boys will always laugh at their father getting hurt. Okay, maybe not always, but 9 out of 10 times it is funny. Once a kid gets a little older and realizes that it may be inappropriate to laugh it usually makes it that much more funny. Also there is a direct correlation of the quality of the funny based on the frustration factor of the father.
I remember my dad getting so frustrated trying to put a chain back on a bike. Sweat was dripping from his nose and he was muttering under his breath and when the chain finally caught, it caught his hand in the cog. I had to cover my mouth not to laugh out loud. It was like I had the church giggles. When he asked me to hand him a wrench, I couldn't do it, I was fighting the laughter so hard.
I sat down with Max and Wyatt to eat dinner, feeling sad because I was missing my dad (he has been gone a year now) when I had another realization. Another factor that increases the humor of a dad getting hurt is just how public the injury incident or slip and fall or hitting his hand with a hammer is.
Many years ago my siblings and I sent my dad to the Phillies Phantasy spring training camp in Clearwater Florida. My dad spent a week in a Phillies uniform, training and playing baseball with real pros like John Kruk and Mitch Williams. My brother Jim went down with a video camera to make sure the rest of us could see my dad in action. I think what Jim was trying to capture was the fun my dad was having playing in the big leagues. What he did catch on the video, was my dad, after hitting a single, take a header, tripping over first base. We must have watched that video a hundred times, laughing hysterically every time.
I need to get my hands on that video tape.
Posts
17 comments:
It could have been a double. Skip was distracted by MoMo9 in the stands. Kind of the opposite of what happened in the Natural.
Not only is that funny...but it is priceless.
As far as the injuries go, I think the amount of times you injure yourself is directly proportional to the amount of times you laughed at your father (or in my case my gramps).
"Church giggles" TeeHee!
Recently went to a wedding where the Maid of Honor and Best Man couldn't look at each other without breaking out laughing. Y'know the kind that makes you spit the laughing out of your mouth.
Reminds me of the Seinfeld show where Jerry puts a Pez dispenser on Elaine's lap and she cracks up laughing during a funeral (or some other such inappropriate event)
I love it when somebody else gets "church giggles"!
ours boys know funny...
Slapstick is universally funny, even if it doesn't involve your dad. And with the preschool crowd, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything better than a good hip check from an inanimate object while carrying piping hot fries. Just remember, you have the ultimate payback tool: you can insist on chaperoning and even chauffering them and their dates to the prom. In your plaid shorts and a wife-beater. Any offspring who loses sight of that fact plays with fire indeed. ;)
I love when the three stooges get replaced by one dork.
If not to entertain, what greater purpose do fathers serve to their sons?
Haven't you ever watched "America's Funniest Home Videos"? That show still exists because of the endless supply of dads getting nailed in the junk. (Which, by the way, is always funny!)
I didn't have a dad growing up...but got plenty of laughs at my poor mother's expense!
She called me once to tell me she fell off the sidewalk and into the street...and I was laughing so hard I could hardly hear the whole story.
Sick and twisted. That's me. LOL!
Boy lukas will have a feild day with me then. Thanks for the heads up.
It's just like Big Daddy ... getting hurt must be hilarious for little boys.
You should broadcast that video :) That'd be sweet and humorous to see.
Your dad is probably laughing right along with those boys of yours.
William, You are a treasure to your family! My son was so funny growing up that I began cartooning every single time he said something that was funny. I have 1,000's of cartoons. Boy was I mad when the cartoon strip Zits came out, it was like looking at my own cartoons! The thing with boys is that they are universally funny in the same way. Girls just aren't funny like that! Your boys definitly remind me of my son! Great post, E
Unforunately I'm the laughing stock of our family. Oh the laughs my Mum and Dad and now my own sons have at my expense!
My best was when I was walking down a street in Cornwall, I waved to a friend on the other side, bumped into a lamp post, then stunned, stepped off the pavement into the gutter which happened to be full of rainwater. Apparently it amused many passers by too!
I feel your pain!
Hahaha, that's priceless. Kids are so easily amused by slapstick, fart jokes, the word "underpants"... life seems so simple for them. :)
Laughing at getting hurt applies to moms, too! I seem to always be bumping into things or whacking my knee on something, or stubbing my toe. B thinks this is hilarious, though I beg to differ.
I'm not sure which was funnier today: your post or the comments! At any rate, I've got a serious case of LOL and tears are rolling down my cheeks.
Slapstick seems to be a mostly male sense of humor, so it is only right that boys and their fathers should share in laughing at one another. As a wife and mother of 4 sons, there is a whole lotta funny happening at my house; as a female, I find it hard to blog about it.
(Church giggles are universal, so I try to not sit next to my husband.)
Good post, Bill, but you better step up your game. Gigglepotamus brought the heat this week on her blog.
Post a Comment