A Little Bit of Silliness Via Monty Python

Looking at my last post title reminded me of the "Bring Out Your Dead" sketch from Monty Python's Holy Grail. The poor old fella who isn't dead yet says, "I feel happy! I feel happy!!" What can I say, I've got a wacky sense of humour.



This is one of the many movie quotes my brother and I will bring out to use on various occasions--some appropriate, some not. Hey, we come by this sense of humour honestly. Three of our four great-grandparents on mom's were from England, so we get the very dry British humour from her. Then dad is from Italy and I don't think Italians are really known for their humour, but they do have a fun side. Having a mixed cultural background lets you see the funny side of both cultures and gives you an appreciation for different types and forms of humour. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Just for fun, here is some Italian humour via Australia with Joe Avati:

You Have to Take Your Inspiration Where You Find It

As a writer, I often find inspiration in strange places. As a writer with depression, I know that inspiration is fleeting and writers' block is not, so when inspiration does strike, I try to run with it. Such is the case this evening. I was researching for an article on my parenting site and was getting frustrated by the lack of information that I was finding. I took a break, posted on Twitter and saw a post from "Weird Al" Yankovic and followed his link to a video. I laughed through one of his fake "interviews" with Avril Lavigne and then watched quite a few other videos. It was the theme song for Al's movie UHF that threw inspiration my way tonight.

If you have never seen "Weird Al's" UHF, you really should. It is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. My younger brother is the one who first introduced me to the humour that is UHF and to this day, either one of us can quote a random line from the movie, and the other will completely understand the reference and will usually respond with another line. I don't have the movie handy at the moment, so pardon me while I quote at will some of our favourite and most used lines:

"It's your favourite, a Twinkie-weiner sandwich!"

"Look at that face! Would you look at that face?"

"Am I ever red. Just call me Mr. Butterfingers!"

"You so stupid!"

"Wheel of Fish!!!!"

"What is inside the box? Nothing! Absolutely Nothing!"

"Supplies!"

"Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers!"

"Today we're teaching poodles how to fly."

"Don't you know the Dewey Decimal System?"

That's not a complete list of the lines we use, but that's what I can come up with at the moment. What can I say, my brother and I have a strange sense of humour, but I believe that humour is one of the things that helps me deal with having depression. I can choose to look at everything negatively, or I can choose to find the funny side of things and have a laugh or two. It's not always easy to choose to laugh, especially when symptoms are aggravated or I'm under a lot of stress, but those are the times when I probably need to laugh the most. I guess having a sense of humour even on the dark days is something I learned from my brother (don't tell him I said that though, it will just give him a big ego--after all, I am the big sister!).

So how was that for taking inspiration where I found it and running with it? I really wasn't sure what direction this was going to go in, but I'm feeling pretty good about it and I've got a smile on my face--all in all, that makes for a pretty darn good day.