Writing Humor

Make a list of uncomfortable experiences:

Pam and Virginia confronting me and me not understanding why.

My clients finding a vibrator on the chalkboard ledge in the grouproom.

Offering a paper at a conference and sitting alone in the room.

Mary G very upset when I threatened to spank Linda who was 3—me meaning a pat on the butt and Mary meaning???

Being asked to leave our own organization and having no one willing to talk to me.

Tony Robbins trying to do stuff with my fingers to make me memorize something.

Deciding not to walk on the first firewalk but my feet taking me to the walk line.

Finding pieces of tree all over the backyard

Waking up in the car and discovering that everyone had gone to lunch

Getting out of the pool after skinny dipping for the first time

Being 8 months pregnant and attending a workshop

Having Jon ask for a divorce when I am finally pregnant again

 

Write about experiences using different techniques.

Surprise/reversal of Expectations

Judy R and I together when we learn our 12-year-old daughters had been picked up for shoplifting. Worried about what to do next, I said, “Let’s not get mad, let’s get even.”

Our parties were so casual that when a guest asked where the drinks were, I told him and asked  him to pour me one too when suddenly the specter of my mother appeared.

Exaggeration and Hyperbole

Jon and I drove to Utah together to pick up the kids at supercamp and leave him at the month long business school training and me to drive home with the 13 and 16 year old kids. His friend, Bill who had been paid to clean up the leftover pieces of the huge, felled cottonwood left by the tree removal company was also gone for the month by the time we arrived home. When I glanced out the kitchen window I saw every square inch of at least a football field of grass littered with a tangle of leaves, sticks, branches, rakes, saws, and piles of debris. Visions of replacing dead turf sitting under the mess for a full month till the men got home were followed by visions of calling and demanding that both men come home and finish the job, followed by visions of losing the thousands of dollars tuition—and finally the realization that only word of the direst of emergencies would even get through the peripheral defense flappers. I realized that I was alone and abandoned.

Understatement

I walk into the group therapy room in my basement to start the session. There lies my vibrator on the tray of the chalkboard. My clients are staring and pointing. I take my seat. “OK, who is ready to work?”

……………………………………………………………..

The floor to ceiling windows between the pool and guests checking into the hotel at the front desk are partly steamed. About a dozen of us walk into the pool space, strip off our party clothes, and dive in.  A hotel employee seems disturbed…

Finding Humor in the Commonplace

We explain to our guest, DC, that we will need to be in the basement for a group therapy session for the next 2 hours and leave her to relax on the main floor with our 11-year-old daughter as her hostess. One of out clients decides that it’s time to do rage reduction therapy. We complete setting up the protection. Mattress, check. One person restraining each leg, check. Two more on the shoulders, check. One on the head and one more on each foot. All holds correct.

Upstairs our daughter is eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, sitting in the kitchen with our guest.

Meanwhile, we check with the client, “Ready?” “Uh huh” “Go ahead.” Long suppressed, bloodcurdling screams as the client writhes, expressing how he feels about years of torment. Normal stuff for us.

Upstairs our guest freaks out, thinking she should call the police. Our daughter calmly continues eating her sandwich. “It’s just rage work.”

Pick up the Pace

In a room built for 25 participants, about 35 interested professionals listen to Mary, out guest lecturer, talking about her work. From the back of the room comes a question, which becomes a long, detailed explanation of the questioner’s world view. The room tunes out. He finally asks, “What should I do?” Mary replies, “Masturbate.” Suddenly, the room is awake again.

Play with Language