Just Thinkin’-
Late Night Laughter and Brain Warming
I believe that keeping my brain active and engaged is critical. This is not as complex as it might sound. Just thinking will do it. But just thinking requires something to think about. Reading is the biggy for me. I read for accurate content and I read for fictional fun. I want to know which is which. I look for an even handedness that no longer seem to be able to find on television. I watch late night television to gain humorous perspective.
Two First Amendment issues, conspiracy theories and political humor, have been at the forefront of recent television.
As to political humor, I have long been a fan of late-night television. From Carson to Letterman to Leno, from Kimmel to Colbert to Meyers. Will Rogers provided a mantra for these folks when he said, “I don’t make jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts.”
First joke I remember telling is a political joke. Memory is tricky but I know I overheard the joke in the back room of the Haskell County Tribune. I know I didn’t fully understand the joke but the men laughed. So, I laughed too. Then someone had the idea that they should teach me the joke so I could tell it to my grandfather.
I didn’t grasp the concept that a President’s son might have a dalliance. After dinner that evening and before the radio was turned on, I proudly spun the yarn. The joke began with President Roosevelt’s Scottish Terrier, Fala, wanting world peace and concluded with a play on the two spellings of peace and piece. My grandmother disapproved. My Grandfather enjoy it. Well, perhaps he enjoyed my telling the joke more than the joke itself.
As with Jimmy Kimmel, I was censored. But unlike Colbert, I did not lose my seat at the table.
You know, making fun of folks who have chosen to be in public is not new. Nor is having a grandson telling the jokes.
Temple Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, owned a newspaper in Philadelphia. Much to his grandfather’s chagrin, he constantly poked fun at President Washington.
Billie and I have long enjoyed laying in the bed, listening and laughing. We are believers in the healing power of laughter. I have often over the years considered Letterman, Colbert and Meyers to be late evening healers as the 24-hour news cycle concluded sowing the seeds of discontent.
Conspiracy theories. I believe these are at their very core mean-spirited. They are intended to be misleading fictions. Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone? Which grassy knoll are they talking about? How many people believe Oliver Stone’s movie, JFK, was a documentary? I do know the First Amendment to our Constitution gives Oliver Stone every right to make his film.
Do you suppose the tale of George Washington’s cherry tree story was originally created by the opposition party to poke fun at Washngton’s relationship with the truth?
I think I’ll have to go to my back porch and pour a cold coke over some ice. The world always seems a gentler and kinder place when viewed through coke fizz.
The ultimate censorship is the flick of the dial. – Tom Smothers
