LOL – guess you had to be there

okay, i have to admit: this LOL blogging thing is harder than it sounds. choosing a story to expound on is proving to be more challenging than expected. while The List is long, the majority of the funnies really do seem to require an element of having-been-there in order for the RE-telling to hold any power of amusement. sometimes the punch in the punchline relies on knowing the personality of the source or experiencing the atmosphere of a moment. required attendance, perhaps. allow me to offer some examples:

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i could describe in detail the surprised reactions of the passengers on the plane as i followed my brother down the aisle to our seats and he successively bopped each of them in the face with the huge pillow strapped to his backpack. i can even tell you how trying to suppress my snickers in front of the blindsided victims silenced me to wheezing laughter, and how i couldn’t catch my breath to tell him to stop, and how that in itself made me laugh harder because it allowed the fluffy attack to continue. but even if i could show you a picture of his bewildered face when we finally arrived at our seats and he turned to find me redfaced and breathless and unable to articulate what was so hysterical, you’d probably not be as entertained as i am right now, holding my cramping sides from uncontrollable giggles.

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i bet you would at least smile at reading about my sister’s strategy to keep a class of tiny tap dancers from driving her insane with incessant clacking of little feet during instruction. (“stand completely still! sit on your bottoms and try to touch your feet to your ears! lie flat on your bellies!!“) but even if i had the advantage of acting it out in front of you, you’ll likely never find it comical enough to provoke the involuntary snorts that i react with when recalling her tell it.

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i can carefully recount the entire evening that led up to the scene of my cousin john crouched near the toilet bowl with a bottle of bleach, a plunger, and wishing for a nose plug. i could introduce his dry sense of humor in hopes of translating his deadpan delivery of this priceless summation: “just so long as everyone enjoyed their chili…” but it’s virtually impossible for me to convey the utter hilarity of the moment without pages of background.

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so you see, the probability of me sitting at my computer in hysterics while my stories fall miserably flat on your screen is quite high. but i’ll keep casting them out there, because even if you periodically shake your head perplexed at my giddiness, hopefully you’ll catch a chuckle one in a while.