She could not understand where the satire ended and the truth began. "Satire is truth!" he insisted. So she sat and watched without laughing as the comedy ensued. The comedy ceased and a commercial appeared, looking very similar to the comedy that had ceased, but with different faces and several dollar signs. A news program began with a laughing man and woman cracking wise about the misfortunes of others, worldwide despondency and puppies. The weather man joked about torrential rain that would leave hundreds homeless. Another commercial came with irony and facetious faces. "We need to laugh!" he proclaimed, "Especially in times like these!" She kept watching and chuckled once or twice, thankful that television programmers worked so hard to make her laugh.
The next day, she asked him, "Can I be honest?" He girded himself knowing that she was going to bore him. "I don't like Manny," she confessed. "He makes me uncomfortable. And very time he opens his mouth I get insulted." Two seconds from tuning her out, he explained, "You just don't get his sense of humor." He unmuted the television and completed the tune-out. She sat by and witnessed him laughing uproariously at a report of a missing girl. Apparently she did not get it.
Thinking that her lack of laughter denoted a lack of humor and an abundance of depression and malaise, she sought advice from a medical professional. The professional seemed to listen and never once laughed at her. An hour later, he passed her a lip of paper for some pills. "These will make you feel better," he concluded. Laughter is the best medicine, she thought, so these cannot be far behind.
Well...
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