What makes me laugh

I was watching Letterman tonight, and he had Albert Brooks on (who completley cracks me up!), and in a clip of his latest movie, he asks a hotel clerk, "What makes you laugh?". The clerk answered, "Animals that act like humans. You know... like a dog writing a letter, or a chicken on the phone." Aidan fell out on the floor laughing. "A CHICKEN on the PHONE!", he exclaimed between giggles. Animals acting like humans makes Aidan laugh, too.

Yesterday, Darren called me "The Chuckler". He says I chuckle a lot. My former boss used to tell me that I have a laughing voice. My friend Victoria W. says I have Betty Rubble's giggle. I guess I laugh a lot more than I realize. And I realize that I do laugh a lot. I find humor in everything. The best exercise I get is a good belly laugh - throwing my head back and letting the laugh come tumbling out, eventually running out of oxygen and, doubling over, slowly allowing it to peter out in a body-rocking, belly-jiggling, side-splitting, headache-inducing quake. MAN, I love laughs like that.

So without further ado: Things That Make Me Laugh

1. The latest Nextel commercial, where the office guys are dancing like freaks to that song from the 80s, "Oh Baby Baby, ooh babybaby..."... and the boss comes in and, freaking out, says, "We don't know how many converters we have! We don't know where our shipment is! And I can't find Koffman anywhere!" The guys stop dancing long enough to pull their Nextel phones out of their pockets and give him the answers he's looking for, then they resume dancing. I espcially love the Asian guy sitting on the desk running the jam box. His expressionless expression is SPOT ON. Cracks. Me. UP!!You can watch the commercial HERE.

2. Ashlie the Cat. I swear, this cat knows she's being funny. Sometimes when I walk into the room, she's waiting for me. As soon as I round the corner, she jumps out at me, then, just like in the cartoons, she peels out on the hardwood floor, running like mad but frozen in space, eventually blazing across the room like a canon shot. Then, she waits for me to look up and she does it again! Cracks. Me. UP!

3. Ian. The things that come out of his mouth astound me and make me laugh at the same time. This weekend, while Darren and Dani were out of town, I took the boys to our favorite local dive: Ol' South Pancake House. The boys ordered Pigs in a Blanket, because it had a funny name. As SOON as our food was delivered, Ian announced to the restaurant, "I HAVE TO POOP!" I said, "You're kidding me. Well, you'll have to wait. You should've told me before our FOOD came." I picked up my fork and he announced, "MY POOP WON'T WAIT." This is not what struck me as funny. This is: While in the bathroom, I muttered, "I hope my food isn't gonna be COLD when we get back." Thirty seconds later, Ian said, "Mommy. You're gonna be sorely disappointed." "Why's that, Ian?", I asked, while wondering WHERE he picked up that colloquialism. "'Cause your food's gonna be cold, alright." Cracked me right up. Ian says things DAILY that send me into gales of laughter. He doesn't have to try to be funny. He just is.

4. Craig Ferguson, host of The Late Late Show on CBS. I can't help it. He's just FUNNY. The best late night host to come down the pike since Dave. (And you know I love Dave!)

5. Martha in California. Have MERCY, that woman is funny. If I'm on the computer and Darren hears me chuckle, he says, "Martha?" Yup. Every time.

6. Go Fug Yourself. My laughing friend Ginger turned me on to this blog, which criticizes in a totally rude and mean but completely HILARIOUS way, the fashion disasters caught on film in Hollywood. Read it and wheeze.

7. Late night infomercials. There used to be one on at about 3 a.m. featuring male enlargement wonder drugs. Oh. My. FlyingSpaghettiMonster, those cracked me up! The first time I saw one of those was right after SHerilyn moved back from Holland. We were having a scrapbooking marathon here at my house, with the TV on in the background. We almost died laughing that night. My sides hurt thinking about it!

8. Farts. But I've already blogged about THAT, so I won't bore you.

9. Darren. You wouldn't think it, 'cause he's sorta quiet. But he is a very funny guy. He makes me laugh all the time. :)

10. Bill Waterston. I miss Calvin and Hobbes. Wow. Just googled to make sure I had his name right. I can't belive it's been ELEVEN years since he retired! My favorite strip... the ones where Calvin was getting his school pictures taken and the ones where he built headless snowmen and made it look like his Dad had hit them with the car and the ones where he got into it with Suzy and ... and... and...

11. Aidan and Ian repeating lines they learned from watching 1995's "The Little Rascals" over and over and over. (It's their latest movie obsession.) "You're a barf-encrusted jumbo jerk. You're scum between my toes." Sunday morning, after giving the boys a dollar to put in the collection plate at church, they sat their in their seat, quietly singing, "I got a dollar, I got a dollar. I got a dollar, hey hey hey hey." I laughed. Out loud. In church. And I didn't even try to hide it.

So. What makes YOU laugh?