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Enjoy the show. Welcome to Soul Decodes. Join
us as we wander off the path to find the ideas
that fascinate. We talk about spirituality, the
mind, the ego, wellness and hidden history with
tips, travels and tales. Charms for a better
life. Sarah, welcome to the treehouse. I'm sorry
I took your parking spot. I know. It looks like
you've got a getaway car today. It's facing outwards.
You're going to be leaving in a hurry. It's like
the black limo is ready to leave. It's nice and
polished as well. It looks shiny. Oh, thank you.
Mind to shame. I came down a dirt road to get
here, Ott Williams, and it was just, I don't
know whether someone had a hose running, but
my car is filthy. Well, I just cleaned it. That's
why it looks good. I'm car shaming. It's going
to look good for a couple minutes. That's good.
That's all that counts. The reason we're parking
outside is because yesterday we started cleaning
out our garage. We had tons of stuff. Have you
found a load of shit you didn't know you had?
We don't call it shit. We call it gifts. We forgot
about it. So anyway, I just want to say welcome
to everybody. My name is Dr. Tia Jolie Phillips.
You're listening to Soul. And I'm with my co
-hostess, Sarah Tirri. How are you, Sarah?
I'm doing very well. Now that you found a parking
spot. I did find a parking spot. So get me caught
up because, you know, with the past couple episodes,
we had to use some pre -recorded things just
because you've been busy, I've been busy. Oh,
manic. Tell me what's happening in your life.
Well, I moved house again. Okay. So it got to
the point with my lake house, and I've talked
about that on a previous episode, where I could
have sold my country home and bought the lake
house. And it would have been an even exchange
and own the lake house for cash. And then I had
already been in the lake house for nine months
and I had to make a choice. So I prayed on it,
which I always do in a big decision. And I woke
up. And then I realised I wanted to go back to
my country home. And that was a very definite
decision. There was no, I was completely at peace
with it. And I loved everything about my lake
home, but not neighbours. It was just too much
because I'd been living in my country home for
25 years. I mean, I could run around naked if
I wanted to. No one's going to see me. And in
the lake home, there were a lot of people around
all the time. But my big thing was my jet skis
because I really, really loved jet skiing. they're
docked at cypress cove marina so i can still
go out on my jet skis and so i moved back to
the country so i did two moves within 10 months
you're crazy that way you're crazy that way well
i like both homes for different reasons so i
think i think you're i think the teary town home
yes i think it's just it's charming It is charming.
And I think... And it's beautiful now it's white.
I love the fact that it's all white. And inside
is white. You haven't seen it since. No, I've
not. You and Robin have to come down. I'd love
to. I call it mental hospital white. Everything's
got white. Note to solve. Am I going to get my
flashbacks to my... Yeah, you might do. Ignore
the straight jacket if you see it in my closet.
Well, that's kind of cool. And now you've got
a lot going. And my niece has been visiting as
well. So I had a lot of attention going to her
and she's worked very nicely. She's very easy
to get along with. Super cute. And we're getting
to know each other because five weeks is quite
a long time and you can get in, you know, we're
driving a lot together. There's probably some
people who... This is their first episode listening
to us. So tell us about your niece, just in a
nutshell. So my niece is my late sister -in -law's
only child. She's 21. And my sister -in -law,
Sally, she passed away three months ago. So Zhenya
is out here and she's here for five weeks. And
she's just decompressing from a very, very difficult
emotional situation. And we're getting to know
each other one -on -one as women. I've kind of
been a motherly figure and she's been a child
in the past. And now we're just getting to know
each other as women, which is really... nice
and she's got a great sense of humor which is
great she's english you see it's dark oh yeah
well we we should talk about humor i don't know
what you have in mind today humor's good humor's
good well but you have some notes there so so
so we thought about doing a show about humor
and laughing laughter and wit so i did some did
take some notes so i want to um start with a
story a real life story of mine that happened
when I was 25. And it was the first time that
I had laughed when everything... Well, I'll explain
the story. So... Someone had passed me a joint
and I was with this person and I was 25. Now,
I hadn't smoked any pot prior to that in England.
All I had smoked was cigarettes and drunk alcohol.
And even though I was travelling around the world
as a stewardess, I hadn't done any drugs. So
I was quite a virgin when it came to it. So I'm
sitting there and I had a couple of hits of pot
off a joint. And I started to laugh and it was
just this beautiful laughter and everything was
funny. existence I'm talking about, not anything
in my life, just existence itself was funny and
I couldn't stop laughing. I had to talk myself
out of it. out of laughing because I wondered
how long it was going to go on for so that was
my first encounter with spiritual laughter and
I've always wanted to reproduce that because
I can see from the other side of the veil all
these years later that this is a place you can
laugh about because it's absolutely inconsequential
to the eternal picture of our existence and so
laughter has been from that moment on something
I've wanted to cultivate in my life because I
saw what it did. I could say it gave me a little
bit of relief, and I suppose it did, but it was
an exquisite that nothing about what's going
on on this planet isn't anything other than beautiful,
and it's something we should be able to laugh
at, not take it so seriously. I took nothing
seriously at that point, and it was lovely. It
was very freeing. It is liberating, isn't it?
Very liberating. I'm not recommending anyone
smokes a joint to get to that stage, but it was
a beautiful encounter. I don't know what the
marijuana did, the THC, but it induced a beautiful
perception. I don't want you to be drinking while
I say this. Certainly not my greens. I don't
want my mic to wear whatever you're drinking.
And that's while you were a flight attendant?
I was 25, yes. And you were already a flight
attendant? Yes, I'd been since age 20. And you
were allowed to smoke joints as a flight attendant?
No, this was when I was at a friend's house in
America. This wasn't, no, you weren't allowed
to smoke, you're still not. No, this was when
I was at a friend's house. And I actually, I
was 20, I'd stopped flying at age 25. So I had
just moved over here at that point, just finished
flying. I know, when I was flying, they'd do
random tests. I was never drug tested once in
five years. Oh, yeah. But you should be. Pilots
should be, for God's sake. Oh, yeah, because
flight attendants don't matter, right? Not like
pilots do. If I had to choose. Well, yeah, I
mean, given the choice, yeah, I'd rather have
a high flight attendant, right? Yeah, right.
But, yeah, you know, I started thinking. I knew
we wanted to do an episode about humor and laughter
and things like that. And I started thinking
about some of the fondest. memories i have in
my life and they categorically they're attached
to some sort of laughter and so i started thinking
in terms of what makes us laugh what when i'm
with you we're laughing all the time pretty much
every time we get together we laugh about something
and it doesn't matter if we're out on the boat
or you know It just doesn't even matter. Don't
you think that we're choosing that, whether it's
conscious or subconscious? Because people who
are quick to laugh, they want to laugh because
they understand the benefits personally and in
the company they keep. So it's something that
I want to do. I think it's a choice whether it's
conscious or not, because we do laugh a lot,
but we're wanting that. I have to agree with
you because there's a lot of times in my life
where laughter was... Not part of the script.
It was not part of the script. And sometimes
when you're getting hammered from every direction,
marital, financial, everything's stupid. Every
place you turn is stupidity. Sometimes the only
thing you can do is laugh. You just have to sit
there and laugh. Because your choice is either
laugh or... I mean, is laugh or cry? I mean,
you can purge yourself through laughing, I think,
and you can purge yourself through crying, one
or the other. Crying is quite depressing, but
after I've had a good cry and I'm understanding
spiritually we have a use for crying, but laughter
will do the same thing. Then you can up your
vibration and not take it so seriously. But I
think, I mean, life is serious. I mean, you and
I have got ourselves to the point where life's
pretty good and we don't have all these problems
anymore, but my life's been tough and very serious
things, like what the fuck is there to laugh
about? But when I look back at all the situations,
I've been, not all of them, I'd say 90 % of them,
I put myself in those. And then it's really hard
to laugh when you've caused this whole thing.
So you're kind of bridging into what I think
is one of the most liberating points of your
life is when you can learn to laugh at yourself.
Because some of us take ourselves so seriously.
And I run into these people all the time. They're
balls of stress. And I can see when you go to
a comedy club, there's stress relief from listening
to somebody else be a joker. But then you walk
away and your life is real again. But if you
can become the joker, if you can become the person
that's just constantly being a goofball, then
you're always with it. So I think that learning
to laugh at yourself is priceless. Growing up,
My whole family was all about puns. Like, you
get my siblings and myself together at a restaurant,
you will want to leave because every sentence
has got multiple layers of puns. Oh, that's good.
And it's kind of fun. Yeah. Until it's not fun.
Until you can't think of a better one yourself.
It's funny. Well, that never happens. But it's
like a one -up thing with my siblings. Yeah,
that's good. Because we're really competitive
with that, especially puns. Yeah, my family is.
In fact, I've got a Facebook group. It's called
O -Pun -O -H. So O -Pun Forum. O -Pun Forum.
And some against. Oh. well pun forum but uh you
know we just that's good i'm gonna have to look
at that we just have different so people put
their puns up they're a clever pun that well
i'm not gonna say they're all clever but they're
can i raise them well there's some of them are
pretty well i think you'll be able to tell in
the first Probably in the first 10 minutes, who
gets puns and who doesn't? Because some people
just don't get it. They try their best. Well,
perhaps it is an art form to some degree. And
what's interesting is you and I are both working
with, well, me more than you, but you're kind
of touching on it a little bit, working with
computers and work with AI. It's very difficult
for computers to tell jokes or to create puns.
The only thing they can do is parse the large
language model and burp up something that makes
sense. But what they lose is the situational
capacity. There's something really raw, something...
When you're in the situation and you burp up
a quick... Timing has to be... Timing is everything.
This is kind of novel, and I think it's important.
So can you program AI to come up with a pun,
and then you can edit it yourself and then put
it in your memory bank and then bring it out
when the time is right or post it on your Facebook?
Because with AI, even with the summaries, you
can tell this is done by a computer. There's
no humor. There's nothing that you'd recognize
as being a humor, but it can still give you your
source material. It's like reading an encyclopedia.
Yeah. So here's your joke for today. Yes. But
it could still be capable of coming up with a
good pun and a good joke, technically at least.
Then you've got to do the delivery. I think there's
something very attractive about people who have,
first of all, they can laugh at themselves, but
also they can think quickly enough to understand
humour. That would be wit. So I wrote something.
Okay, so yeah, what's on your list there? So
about wit, seeing as you brought it up. So while
you're looking that up, when I met Robin, the
last thing in the world I wanted was to go out
on a date or have a relationship. I was just
off a divorce and it was just stupid. I just
didn't want a relationship. I needed to kind
of do my dark. You know, just do me, fix me.
I wanted to fly airplanes and lift weights. That's
all I wanted to do. Fly airplanes and lift weights.
And so I really didn't want another relationship.
But my friend at the weigh room said that there's,
you know, Rob, there's this person that's going
through some stuff. Recently we threw a divorce
and I thought, well, you know, if I could be
a friend, I'm going to be a friend. If I can
help somebody, I'm going to help somebody. Well,
it turns out that he told. Heard the same thing
about me. I was a single parent, basket case.
I was a piece of work. So Robin came to me just
wanting to be a friend. So we both went to each
other just trying to help and trying to be a
friend. I was expecting this complete basket
case. And it turned out to be completely opposite.
So we went to lunch. The very first time we knew
each other, first day, we went to lunch. My friend
was with his... spouse and then the two of us
had just met so we're just having lunch yeah
at some diner in uh i think it was on gross back
road in detroit and we were just my friend's
name was larry we were just cutting up and just
i would say these little quips these little puns
these little word word a play on words plays
on words and things like that and i looked at
robin and she would be laughing yes i don't know
like wait what because Those little subtle...
Told you a lot about her. Yeah, totally. I'm
like... damn yeah this is a smart that was that's
very interesting because the same thing happened
with Tony and I we were watching a movie and
we were laughing and not not always at the obvious
parts and I looked at him sitting on the couch
and like we are laughing at exactly the same
thing and it was beautiful that was really early
on I mean it told me a lot I mean finding exactly
the same thing funny and quickly spontaneously
very funny he wasn't just laughing to be courteous
to me because I was already laughing it was happening
at the same time and that was really nice and
it's very it's to me it's very uh it's a big
connection it's a huge connection it's also very
to me it's very attractive yeah because i want
to just be free and if i find something funny
yeah i say it yeah and so robin's to the point
now where she's she just rolls her eyes she's
like she knows but she's almost almost predictive
like she knows if there's a scenario yeah in
fact Most of my family doesn't even know if I'm
being serious or not. No, that's funny because
my sister -in -law's daughter, so that's my niece,
and she was 10 years old. And she said to me,
I never know when you're serious or you're joking
when I say something. And I thought that was
very funny. And a lot of people don't. And I
thought, wow, that's a nice element of surprise
for them, but might be a bit disconcerting. But
that's a secret weapon. Well, that's my thing.
I use this seriously because when I was in grade
school, if you just looked at me, I was very
straight and narrow. I was the kid. You always
wanted your kid to play with me because I was
always doing the right thing, never getting in
trouble. I was just totally straight. So you
thought. Right, right. So it's just a front.
It's just a mask. Because I was smart enough
to know how to get caught. So when there would
be like a food fight at school, promise you.
I promise you, either I or one of my closest
people coordinated that. Oh, I love a good food
fight. And we would start the food fight and
then bolt. Right. Like we would literally start
it and leave. Yeah. I wouldn't be able to leave.
I'd be so into it. I'd have to keep going. After
you launch your volley, you know. We wouldn't
even calculate how to start the food fight. Okay,
you do this. It was like coordinated. It was
like a military operation starting a food fight.
But then what they'd start, after the first food
fights, they would shut the doors and pretty
much interrogate whoever's in the cafeteria.
So we learned quickly to start it and leave.
Yeah. And then they shut the doors. But wouldn't
you want to be there for what you've started?
I'd feel deprived if I had to leave from a food
fight that I'd started. No. I remember making
homemade Play -Doh with my kids when they were
younger. And in the making of it was fun, putting
all this food coloring and it was flour and water.
And we had this Play -Doh and then we all got
into a food fight and it was about nine o 'clock
and we went for it. They were all about 10, 12
and 14. And then I didn't want to clear up that.
night because it was... fucking horrendous so
we all went to bed tony came home early and there's
all this this play -doh and it wasn't like the
play -doh you buy which is just it was stuck
to the walls you have to get a chisel to get
it off it was absolutely everywhere so that was
the last time i had a food fight well actually
it wasn't i did one with spaghetti once that
was funny but yeah what is it about a food fight
that we just because it's so not good is it it's
so not good there's like nothing there's nothing
good about it well you're wasting the food you're
it's very irreverent isn't it it is funny as
fuck it's funny it's totally funny yeah so let
me okay so along these lines what are some Finish
talking about wit. It was basically wit. Okay,
talk to me about wit. So she had the wit to do
something. So wit is to do with intellect and
quick thinking. We align it with humour, but
it actually means something intelligent. She
had the wit, the wherewithal to do something.
And Tia Jolie had the wit to see what was wrong
with the plan. So wit is a word that is witty,
which is quick thinking with aligned with humour.
But it doesn't have to be related to humour.
It can be just problem solving very quickly on
the cuff. Well, that makes sense because growing
up, we used to call somebody a dimwit. Yeah,
nitwit, my mum would say. Or nitwit. So a dimwit
would be somebody that's not, their light is
not very bright. Did I say that right? Well,
they're not thinking. Yeah, the light is not
very bright. They're not thinking quickly. So
to be witty, because it's a timing issue, isn't
it? So to be witty. Now, the other thing. So
this was horrible. So I was burying my father
at his funeral and I got the giggles. Oh, that's
hilarious. Yeah, it was absolutely terrible.
My mum was sitting next to me and she had the
wit, the wherewithal to make it look like I was
crying. I was in a very emotional situation.
And she was rubbing, you know, and I kind of
had my head against. her breast and she was just
calming me down but I was laughing and I was
researching how do I stop laughing this morning
and then there was this little cartoon and this
lady saying to the other lady I'm really sorry
that I laughed at your dad's funeral so I didn't
feel like such a freak when I read this because
this was 25 years ago so I'm finding I find humor
in very very pious situations and I'm totally
not totally irreverent but irreverent when in
a man -made In man -made piety, I find it very,
very funny. I could laugh in church, and I laugh
at other people being pious. So I'm not quite
sure what the root of that is. Well, if somebody's
pious, they're all up in their ego. Has to be
an ego -driven thing, doesn't it? Tell me a situation
where you're pious and you're not in your ego.
I can't think of one. I think it's related, isn't
it? It's an ego structure. So to me... But totally
inappropriate, though. And that's what made it
funny. Humour is never not appropriate. Well,
I think at a funeral it might be to a lot of
people. So I was making a lot of people uncomfortable.
When they thought I was hysterical because I
was grieving, then they all calmed down a bit.
But, I mean, I was getting looks, people. So
I think it was absolutely antisocial. But that
actually compounded the whole problem because
now I'm being antisocial. That I find funny,
that people are so offended, hyper -offended
by me. Anything else I'm with because I want
to ask you? I have a question. dr phillips okay
this is dr phillips now so um laughter so what
organ is used to laugh and the answer is the
limbic system what's the limbic system well have
you ever done limbo dancing when i bend over
backwards i do that as a daily chore to my family
so you're um you know that's the organ No, the
limbic. Is it in your brain? It's in your brain.
Oh, okay. So I didn't know whether it was in
the body or the limbic system. You know, whenever
you use the word system, like people say it's
your immune system. Well, your immune system,
you don't have an immune system. It's the network
of all of your immunity in the aggregate. So
they just categorically call it the immune system.
Your limbic system, you'd have to. You know what
we should call it? Maybe we know somebody in
the limbic committee. We're going to have to
ask my mum to know what it is. And can you whack
your head and get it activated? I know, right?
we can find that out i'm not and the other one
says this is a dr phillips one as well so this
way to put me on this i know i'm sorry do you
find humor in this so yeah i do it's hilarious
so laughter triggers the release of endorphins
that was good and i think i kind of knew one
knew that one and that's the body's natural feel
-good chemical laughter protects the heart i
thought that was interesting well yeah so it
stopped there because the endorphins like Remember
I talked to you in previous episodes about giving
somebody a 20 -second hug? Yes. The chemical
that's released, which probably operates within
the limbic system, is actually called oxytocin.
And I'm not a neuroscientist, but I'll look that
up. But the oxytocin, it's the mama hug. It's
the peace. It's the security. It's a very good
feeling. And you get that natural high from it.
In terms of... It protects the heart. It burns
calories. So when you laugh, you're... When you
laugh, especially the... They call it the belly
laughter. I have to try. Oh, I can feel it. The
belly laughter. I can just feel it under here
then, actually. So if anyone who knows yoga...
Okay, this is a fake laugh. I have to... Oh,
God. So I completely... My stomach went quite
tense then. Yeah, because you're like... So anyone
who knows tai chi or yoga... It's good for your
abs. Martial arts. If you just put your hands
right at your lower rib cage... just like this,
that's roughly where your diaphragm is. I felt
it go hard when I was laughing. Yeah, so a lot
of people breathe like this. It's all up in their
shoulders. But when you do diaphragmatic breathing,
you're actually exercising your full lungs. You're
pulling your lungs down. You're opening it up.
You're oxygenating your whole system. That's
what's burning calories. When you breathe out.
But that motion does so many things for you.
It gives you, first of all, it tones your gut.
Yeah. It really tones your gut. So laughter is
good for your figure. Oh, laughter is amazing.
Wow. Laughter and sex are basically two of the
best things you can do. For your body. Laughter
and sex. Yeah. Like, especially. Do you smoke
after sex? No, I laugh. I can barely walk after
sex. There's stories. I can't tell those stories.
Do an X -rated podcast. We'll do those for our
special people that stay after. Okay, yeah, there
we go. The X -rated version. The after hours.
The pillow talk. So let me ask you this. There's
a lot of evidence. And the other two, lightens
anger's heavy load. Well, that's an obvious one,
isn't it? And it might help you live longer.
So I think it probably will help you live longer
because when you're laughing, your ego mind is
not engaged. You're in spirit, I would say, when
you're laughing. You're not problem solving at
an ego level. So your brain is in a different
brain wave than it would be in an ego structured
thought form. So you're more relaxed. And if
you're more relaxed, I can imagine. imagine that
would lead to longevity this is an interesting
conversation because when i was getting my master's
degree i was studying the work of dr daniel amen
and he had this technology called spect where
they would just basically look at the photons
that are released in your brain and you could
analyze how people think when they think what
their thoughts what their feelings based on the
photonic release of and if there wasn't much
of a photonic release does that mean you're meditating
that you're in a theta brain yeah so there's
that that's what i'd want yeah there's that no
but he specifically you could see like the limbic
system fire up and you can see all these different
nodes fire up depending and you can also nowadays
find out if there's brain damage when things
are not lighting up you can see that maybe there's
a circulation issue or some sort of neuro degeneration
or something within the brain When we laugh,
everything's connected in my world. If your big
toe is sick, if you have a problem with your
big toe, your whole body has the problem. It's
not just your elbow. I think you can disidentify
with it to some degree. I think you can have
a body part that's not well, but it doesn't have
to affect your consciousness. You have to be
present to do that. Well, what I'm saying is...
If in my mind, I have humor, I'm laughing and
I, I find, I don't find something funny because
from my elbow. Okay. My elbow doesn't, unless
I hit my funny bone, I guess, but it makes me
angry. So, but, but my mind, it's my, it's my
mind that maybe there's a tangential, maybe I'm
talking about something and you're talking about
something else. And I find humor in the, in the
cross, the cross of those concepts. That's in
my brain. That's a, That's something my brain
synthesizes. But if I laugh, my whole body benefits
from that laughter. It's a whole body experience.
You're talking about the spiritual aspect? Yes.
Well, I believe that whoever designed us, whatever
that intelligence was, laughter was for a reason.
And we don't laugh enough. And when I had that
experience when I was 25, I absolutely knew that's
what I wanted to do. And we don't, and life can
be very, very serious and we can, but I, I'm
much better now about not taking myself seriously,
but I did all my life. You wouldn't have recognized
me when I was younger. I didn't laugh a lot and
I was very, very serious. I think you and I have
that in common. Yeah. I was very intense, but
I think that if there is a creator, which I think
there is, you know, this infinite creative source,
there's definitely a sense of humor. Yes. Definitely.
One thing I find interesting since you and I
have been doing podcasts. together is what triggers
the laughter like you and i have a lot in common
like we'll laugh at a lot of things that we think
are funny but there's also some things that are
like benny hill there's Yeah, Benny Hill's going
to have a certain type of humor and I'll look
at that and I won't even get it. Yes, I never
thought he was funny at all. I found him annoying.
And you'll see, Americans thought he was funny,
but it was mostly because there was quirkiness
or slapstick. Like, I don't think slapstick is
funny. Me neither. I don't think sarcasm is funny.
Well, I've got a quote about sarcasm. Tell me
about sarcasm because let's pivot to that. Oscar
Wilde said this. I wish I'd had my, hang on a
second. Do you have to say something? Well, sarcasm,
to me, your subconscious mind doesn't know the
difference between reality and... Okay, sorry,
darling. So sarcasm is the lowest form of wit,
but the highest form of intelligence, and that's
Oscar Wilde. So it's the lowest form of wit.
I'm very sarcastic, and I think English people
generally are, but he's saying it's the highest
form of intelligence. So I thought that was interesting.
I find sarcasm really funny and I don't take
it seriously in other people because I use it
a lot myself. Yeah. And sarcasm to me is hideous.
Yeah. Yeah. Because I grew up with it. Doesn't
it depend on the context though? If I could be
sarcastic and it wasn't directed at you, it was
directed at something going on externally, that's
not going to bother you so much. Yeah, I don't
know who Oscar Wilde is or anything like that.
No, I'm just kidding. Like, who are you going
to believe? He died in Reading jail. But I don't
buy off on that high form of intelligence. I
think it's almost like cussing in the humor realm
because... Oh, well, you're talking to the wrong
person. I know, right? Well, we can disagree
on stuff. It's okay. But what I was bringing
up is that so much of what we think is funny...
is not only situational but also our upbringing
i can easily make fun of all the world's religions
but people who are attached to those religions
emotionally they're not going to think anything's
funny no right they're going to take it like
this is life and death stuff we're talking about
your eternal soul And they're not going to think
any of it's funny. Well, when I wrote Is This
the Best God Could Do? it was a man called Leland
Lerman from the Santa Fe Star. He said, and it
was in a quote that he said, my book was funny
but entirely sober. And I had gone in and taken
the piss out of Christianity, and taking the
piss is an English term for making fun of, mocking,
and it absolutely deserved to be mocked to me.
And I did realise, and I still realise, I could
offend a lot of people. But you're choosing to
be offended. There's a lot that I needed to be
quite brutal and scathing about, even though
I knew it was going to ruffle a few feathers.
So I didn't care. Because we're in a place now
where everybody's so sensitive about everything.
Yeah, hypersensitive. But you're choosing that.
Don't put that on me. You're choosing to be upset
right now. Everything's a choice. Well, the football
team, there's the Washington Commanders, right?
Redskins. No, they're not the Redskins anymore.
Oh, that's right. They had to change their name.
Yeah, they changed their name. So there's my
point. They were called the Redskins my entire
life. They're the Redskins. They should have
changed their name to the Washington Allskins,
right? Really, they should have done that. The
Fourskins. Okay, that's for the X -rated after
hours run. Oops, we jumped the gun. But it would
have been a lot easier to keep skins in it, wouldn't
it, than change it to something completely different
for marketing and PR. But, you know, who is so
sensitive? I mean, did the indigenous natives,
did the Native American Indians come up and say,
yeah, you know what, the past, you know, 40 years
you've been seeing redskins and we just can't
even sleep at night. I know. Look how old we
look because we can't sleep. It's so ridiculous.
It doesn't even make sense. We're so petty. Of
all the things to be troubled about. But we're
at a point now where everybody gets triggered
about everything. But are we going to come through
that? I think we have to because we're going
to be so bored by it. I think that that's a place
where sarcasm can come in. I was really sarcastic
and this is the best God could do. Oh, it's laced.
And the other place that sarcasm is very beneficial.
I'm just telling you this because the past 10
years, some of us have been censored on YouTube,
Twitter, Facebook. We've had our accounts closed,
our accounts taken down just for saying things
that were not okay. So sarcasm is beneficial
for dodging that bullet because I can literally
say, oh, Sarah, those shoes are divine on you.
Those are just. Divine. Yeah. No, no, you don't
understand. Those shoes are really divine. You
know, you can say those things and it picks up
the text and it listens to the context and says,
oh, Tia Jolie's talking about Sarah's shoes.
But it won't... See, I'm not even good at sarcasm,
but there's... But the implication is that the
shoes are absolutely awful. They're hideous shoes.
And you can't say they're hideous shoes. You've
now got to couch it in terms where you don't
get censored. So you're using that as a tool.
So we've used that. So I do use sarcasm. I have
used sarcasm as a tool. But I guess the thing
is, you know, growing up, there was just children
need positive, uplifting affirmations. They don't
need to be made fun of. Yeah. And I think there
was just so much negative and so much sarcasm
in my life. It just got really old. Yeah. And
it's just a... It was just a negative... Yeah,
it was a downer. It was a major downer. Yeah,
it wasn't funny. No, it's just not funny. Because
when you're making fun of somebody, now, just
like the computer picks up the text and takes
it literally, the subconscious mind takes the
feeling. Yeah. And if you're being made fun of,
whether it's a joke or whether it's sarcasm or
whatever... The feeling is going to be imprinted
on you. Yes, and because it was happening directly
to you, you cultivated a feeling. I remember
watching my mum. She was hosting a dinner party
at her house. There were probably about ten people
there, and I was five years old, and I used to
spy on her all the time. And this man was talking
to her, and she was all dressed up. She had a
cigarette in a cigarette holder. She looked like
a film star. And he said to her, Linda, and he
was trying to flirt with her, and he said, Linda,
I'm a very modest man. And her response was,
yes, you've got a lot to be modest about. And
I thought... this was hilarious at age five and
that was that was my first introduction to sarcasm
but it was happening to this poor man not me
sitting on the stairs so I was able to find it
funny because it wasn't happening to me and it
was mortifying for him he was very embarrassed
by it and my mum was pretty rude to him but he
was a bit ingratiating so but I think if And
when I put and when I use sarcasm and is this
the best God could do? It was about something.
So no one's feelings are involved unless you're
completely in a defensive position of Christianity.
Then it might bother you, but it's not personal.
So using in writing, I think, is a really useful
way of making a point, perhaps not conversationally
or at a dinner party. Yeah, I think that just
to put a bow on this concept, if you're doing
something to hurt other people, like I'm not
saying that. Because there are some people that
are going to be hurt no matter what you say or
do. No matter what you say or do, they're going
to be hurt. That's not what I'm talking about.
Why are they wanting that? That's so weird, isn't
it? I think that there's this place where if
you're using your humor to berate an individual
or a group. Yeah, but that's bullying. I think
that's just another form of bullying. I guess
that's the point there. Across different cultures,
because I've been to more than 50 countries,
you've been around the world. Would you say there's
one type of humour that's kind of categorically
funny? British humour. I'm sorry to disappoint
you. Don't look so disappointed. What do you
want me to say, Australian humour? No, I don't
mean like British humour. What do you mean? Okay,
well, so the type of jokes. Like some people
don't find slapstick humor funny. I find sarcasm
very, very funny. You find it funny and I don't.
So really it's... Satire is very funny. Satire
is funny. I like a good joke. I like satire.
Yeah. And slapstick. I mean, that's... Never
really found that funny. There was a show called
Absolutely Fabulous that came out in the early
90s. It was Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders.
And it was about these two wealthy women who
are raising this child. And it was very slapstick
humour, but the writing of the show was first
class. So slapstick mixed with a really, really
good script is funny. But if you're relying on
just slapstick... to carry the whole thing. I
can't be bothered with it. But absolutely fabulous
for any of the listeners. You can go onto YouTube
and watch that. It won so many awards. And it
was so brutal, so sarcastic and so slapstick,
but it was a great combination. But slapstick
by itself, it's like Benny Hill. It's just, yeah,
whatever. So what's up with people laughing at
other people if you see somebody slip and fall?
Yeah, what is up with that? They're carrying
a basket of... tomatoes and they slip and they
fall and they get tomatoes all over them and
they're just a mess or paint i i actually wouldn't
laugh at that if that happened in a store i wouldn't
i would i would find that maybe internally funny
funny but i wouldn't want that happening to me
i wouldn't want someone laughing so i think i
would have some compassion for that but it probably
would be funny if they hadn't hurt themselves
yeah and that's i use that as an example when
i'm discussing humor in other circles because
you and I can witness the same thing. We can
see these two little children getting their ice
cream cones and they're just all excited because
they waited all day for their ice cream cones
and one of them falls and it lands on them and
I might look and say, oh my goodness, that child,
are they hurt? I can run to their aid and clean
them up and tend to them. In the meantime, you're
sitting on the park bench laughing your ass off
because it looked funny. It was a funny thing.
Another thing is... That happened to my brother.
He was eating an ice cream and he was being stalked
by a seagull for about a year. No, seriously.
And the seagulls had domesticated and it came
down and it stole his ice cream. And he was furious
about it. It just came in and got the whole thing.
And I'm just laughing. And that is just so funny
and so unusual. So there was, when I was dating
Robin, we were in Detroit, just we were a bunch
of goofballs. And I just, I always had tickets
to events because I was... public relations for
the air force so they always wanted the color
guard and they wanted the parachute team to jump
in so i was the person that did all that yeah
so i did all that but i was always invited to
the detroit grand prix the air shows fabulous
i always had tickets and vip passes because i
always took care of my people always nice robin
and i were just dating and we were in a parking
lot and i saw a banana peel in the parking lot
And I was joking, and I'd go up and I said, oh,
no, look, a banana peel. And I faked, like, I
was going to step on it. But I actually did step
on it, and I actually did slip. Oh, my God, really?
But I got up and I laughed at my, I didn't fall
all the way, but it was. But that wasn't, you
weren't intending. I wasn't intending to, but
it was slippery. I was like, damn, that's a thing.
It really is a real thing. That's a thing. God.
So, but that's slapstick first person. But that
was totally funny. Yeah. And I realized it was
funny, so I was able to laugh at myself. So I
think if I saw a child do that and they were
laughing at themselves, I would laugh. If they
were injured, I would probably be empathetic.
Yeah, you'd go all maternal. And I also think
I would say toughen up as well. You've just dropped
an ice cream. It's not the fucking end of the
world. Buy them another one. I wouldn't indulge
getting really upset, you know, crying about
that. Is there any... Let me ask you this. What's
one of your favorite jokes that always gets a
laugh? Do you have any? Yeah, I do. I have quite
a few. Do you have any clean ones? Yeah, loads
of them. Yeah, they're the better ones. You can't
rely on dirty humor to be funny. Well, you can,
but... So one of my favorite jokes, it is, what
do you call a deer with no eyes? And the answer
is no idea. Oh, you won't let me guess? No, I
can't do that. No, because it's just... No, you
can't guess it. I would have guessed it. You
wouldn't have guessed. No idea. I did. I've told
that joke a bunch of times. Yeah, I think that's
because I mentioned it on the last podcast. Oh
God, you take credit for this joke. Now we have
to copyright jokes? That was a funny one. Okay,
so I have no idea. Okay, what's next? Oh, I don't
know. You give one now. Okay. I like these jokes
that my children brought to me when they were
kids. Because they're so just... Not right. Where
did the general keep his armies? Don't know.
Where did the general keep his armies? In his
sleevies. That's funny. That's good. I like it.
That's cute. That's a cute one. So another Charles
joke. What do you call a blind dinosaur? A do
you think he saw us? That's my daughter bought
that one. We won't go too deep in this because
we don't want to turn off our listeners. You
should see Sarah though. She wants me to laugh
at her jokes and she's laughing harder at her
own jokes. Do you see? What do you call a blind
dinosaur? Do you think he saw us? That's so fucking
funny. So here's the other thing. If you and
I walk downtown Claremont. We just sit there.
We should do this. Okay, let's do it. Just sit
at a coffee table like on the sidewalk. All right.
And just laugh. Hilariously. And just watch how
many people come by us and laugh. Let's do it.
It's impossible. Do it as an experiment. I've
done this before. It's impossible to laugh. It's
impossible to not laugh. Wow. That's contagious.
When you see two people laughing. I've seen it
being contagious at a party. Oh, it's totally.
A complete stranger in a street walking past
you in a sidewalk. Oh, totally. Wow. If you have
two people laughing, you can be on the beach,
you just start laughing. You laugh so much that
you're doubled over, your gut hurts, you can't
breathe. You've done that, right? I do it all
the time. Yeah, me too. When you witness somebody,
two people laughing that hard where they can't
breathe, they can't talk, they spit their drink
out. Nose running. You forget everything else
that's going on. and you're engaged you're like
what's so funny like you're pulled into it so
people are around so i've noticed that with yawning
i can be in a room and yawn and then everyone
else and i can make my dogs yawn i'll start yawning
and then my dogs will start yawning so the same
with laughter but with laughter though that's
beautiful because you're upping the consciousness
of the entire planet the vibration is being raised
and so it is a highly spiritual act Because you're
not bitching, you're not whining, you're not
complaining, you're not doing something wrong.
Laughter, I mean, if everyone laughed right now,
you'd have heaven on earth right now if everyone
was laughing. So maybe when you have your new
church and you have the sermon, we need a...
We need comedians up there or something. That
would be good. Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah, sort
of a variety show. A variety show, yeah. A church
variety show. I love it. Yeah. Well, laughter
is no laughter. I think to laugh, it is definitely.
So what did the Buddhists say about this? In
some of the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, laughter
can be seen as a positive force, even a tool
for enlightenment. So I totally get that. But
I can see that because you cannot laugh in the
past. You cannot laugh in the future. Laughter
is only in the present. And just like I said
with sex, when you're there, you are in the moment.
You're not thinking about yesterday or last week
or last month. Not projecting to the future.
Or the future. You're not thinking about World
War III. You're laughing. And that's so... The
humor and just being present is so beautiful
and so priceless. Yeah. It's the being present,
isn't it? It's absolutely wonderful. So I'm going
to go on to one more thing. Okay. Because I know
you have your list. No, I'm through with my list.
I've got a joke I've got to get out to you. Oh
God, what is it? But before I do the joke, well,
I've got two things. Well, I'm just going to
tell you, this is my all -time, all -time favorite
joke. Okay. Because I've never not had somebody
laugh at this one. And you could probably do
it in different languages, too. Oh. Swahili.
Right? Well, there's a couple variations. First
of all, this is my favorite knock -knock joke.
Second favorite. I'll give you my first favorite,
but you know how to do knock -knock jokes, right?
Yes, knock -knock. Who's there? Yeah, yeah. Go
ahead and start. Knock -knock. Who's there? I
haven't thought of one for years. You start.
I know, I'm supposed to start. You're supposed
to start. Go on, then it's redo. No, no. See,
the joke is that I had you start. That's the
whole joke. Oh, is that the joke? That's good.
The joke is that I got you to start. That's good.
I like it. Okay. Yeah. So that was my second
favorite. Here's my favorite all -time knock
-knock joke. But you're going to have to wait
until next week on sold e -codes. No, no. Okay.
That's going to offend a lot of people. Okay.
So, knock -knock. Who's there? Interrupting cow.
Interrupting cow who? These are very childlike
and beautiful. I like it. Okay. So, man, we're
losing tons of calories here. I know. It's great,
isn't it? Okay. Alcohol makes me laugh too. After
a glass of champagne, I am laughing a lot after
champagne. And even just six ounces of it. You
don't drink much, though, so... But... We'll
try it. We'll take some champagne out on this
experiment we're going to do on the sidewalk.
A glass of champagne. Just... Yeah, why not?
Just blow up some champagne. But that has...
I mean, it's not... It wouldn't be a gin and
tonic, either. It would be champagne with the
bubbles. Look, don't get me wrong. I'm not a
prude. No. Is that what you call it in England?
A prude? Yeah, a prude or a prig. Yeah. A what?
Prig. Prig? P -R -I -G. What's a prig? A prude.
Why don't you just use prude? Well, I just said
there's two words. Sometimes we have five words
that mean the same thing. We are English after
all. Damn English. That's the Queen's English.
Priggish. Someone who's priggish would be a prude.
Yeah, pious. It's not flattering. Okay, thanks.
Let me ask Siri. I had to go punch the person
that called me a prig. We call it a prick here.
What does prig mean? Oh, no, you're getting...
Prick. You didn't hear me properly. Oh, my God.
Hang on, let me enunciate properly. Siri, what
does prig mean? Prig, a self -righteously moralistic
person who behaves in a superior way with others.
So self -righteous and moralistic. I grew up
with so many prigs. It's crazy. And you thought
they were pricks. There's one thing that I found
that makes everybody laugh, no matter where you
go. And probably the most iconic example of this
is a YouTube video. You can go search for it.
It's called The Farting Preacher. Oh, God. The
Farting Preacher. And when I saw this, I was
laughing so much because what they did was there's
this. this evangelical preacher that's all fired
up. Oh yeah. You know, he's doing this with the
hands and doing this. But what they did was they
overdubbed. They took all the, his words off.
Well, they, they kept his words, but then when
he would do these gestures like this, they dub
in like the exertion gesture, they dub in a fart.
Oh, that's funny. And when he was rubbing, it
would be like, as he was rubbing, it was just
so funny. But as a rule, that's kind of clever
though. For some reason, people laugh at gas.
It's like laughing gas, right? Yeah. But as a
rule, there's so many people just laugh at farts
for some reason. I think because to fart... But
it's so human, though. Why do we laugh at farts?
Well, it's human, but we don't want it to happen
to us. You wouldn't want to be farting standing
on stage when you're doing a presentation. You
just wouldn't want that. You would rather that
not happen, right? Speak for yourself. So when
it happens, it actually would be embarrassing.
So we do laugh. We love to laugh at embarrassing
situations. Robin's going to kill me for this.
I want to watch the farting preacher now. So
Robin's going to kill me for this. So forgive
me, Robin, in advance. Forgive her father. When
she was having Grayson, that's our only child,
we were going to Lamaze class. This is in Redford,
Michigan or something. There's this Lamaze class
where you learn to breathe and learn to relax
while you're in labor, right? at the end of class
they turn all the lights out and you're on these
yoga mats right they're just on the floor they're
relaxing and doing their thing and you know just
just chilling out so they turn out the lights
and you're supposed to just chill out you're
supposed to just breathe and it's just it's supposed
to be just peace so you got a bunch of all these
pregnant ladies laying on the ground with their
spouses their girlfriends whatever they're just
They're not delivering. No. But you've got this
heavy baby pushing on all your organs. But it's
completely dark. Oh, my God. And all of a sudden,
somebody farts. Oh, my goodness. And oh, my God.
Did she find it funny? She found it not funny
because she did it. She did it. Exactly. I think
I might have been mortified. Not with my third
child, but with my first one. But the whole room
erupted. like you have all these regular ladies
laying on their back laughing and yeah oh my
god it was just there was no relaxation the whole
room erupted with laughter yeah because it was
so so it's a very but i owned it a lot of times
you know if you're a good spouse you own it you're
just like excuse me yeah like yeah i don't know
how i would have felt about that to be honest
i think but the funny thing is the lights were
out so nobody had to own it Because the lights
were out. No. The fact is. That kind of intensifies
it though a bit, doesn't it? Because now it's
just, you've only got auditory. You haven't got
anything visual. So now the fart is really, really
significant. It's so dramatic. Poor Robin. So
anyway, this has been, I didn't know what to
expect, but I told Robin, I said, you know, we
talk about, on Soul Decodes, we talk about politics.
We talk about. All these intense, these really
important things, but this is equally important.
Well, there's a quick biblical quote which deals
with what you've just said, and that's kind of
interesting. Here it is. This is Ecclesiastes.
There is time to weep and a time to laugh and
a time to mourn and a time to dance. So that's
biblical and that's St. Paul. So yeah, there
is a time to weep. There's a time to dance, a
time to laugh and a time to mourn. So laughter
is more important than a lot of things because
the levity is what we need to get through all
the bullshit. It's interesting because you know
how in the... Aviators, we have nicknames for
each other. Yeah, your call signs. The call signs.
Yours is scrappy. So I've never disclosed my
call. When I was going through flight school,
this never became like a real call sign for me,
but we'd have these stand -ups in the morning,
and the stand -ups would be... It's called stand
-up because they have to put you under pressure
to simulate an emergency situation. So there'd
be the whole squadron, there'd be the instructor
pilot with the two students in front of him or
her. And then they would go and they'd say, Lieutenant
Sarah, stand up. And he'd stand up and they'd
say, you're the wing, you're flying wing in a
two -ship formation out in Gulf area. Your lead
does this. They give you a scenario that's an
emergency situation. They lose the radio. They
have an engine fire. Whatever. There's something
going on. What do you do? And so you're supposed
to go through this checklist. First thing I do
is maintain control of the airplane, recognize
the situation. You go through all this checklist.
These are very intense. Because if you don't
do the procedure correct, If you bust the ride,
if you bust the ground operations, like in the
morning, the morning stand up, they take you
off the board. Like you're not flying that day.
So if you don't mentally get that right, apply
the proper thought, the proper protocols, the
proper procedures. Yeah, act like it's really
fucking happening. Read the right checklist.
Yeah, you got to be right there. We used to call
it a surface -to -surface missile because you're
not even in the airplane and you fail. Right.
And they take you off the board and then you
got to go talk to the flight commander. It's
like not a good thing. No. I've had this problem
my whole life. I'm the worst liar in the world.
I find humor in everything. So I'm always smiling.
And when you're in this... situation where everything's
serious and you have all these highly high overachieving
pilots right and i'm the one sitting there smiling
that doesn't go over no it could irk them so
yeah i had people come out just like these senior
officers like what are you hollywood or something
so thankfully that didn't stick because i don't
like hollywood but that the smiley thing just
was a nervous a nervous thing for me it's just
like well you know i just smile because it's
very disarming when you see people smile but
there's certain times it's not appropriate yeah
yeah yeah now one thing after i got to be a seasoned
pilot especially when you're flying with another
really really good pilot where both of you you're
on a four -day trip together it becomes very
competitive who has the better takeoff better
landing so a lot of times we would find ways
to throw the other person off without um jeopardizing
without a safety thing yeah sure yeah because
you don't want you never want to jeopardize no
but the passengers yes you've taken it too far
at that point right so but one of the best things
i would do is is actually we're not allowed to
talk below 10 000 feet so anything you do has
to be above 10 000 feet because below 10 000
feet it's called a sterile cockpit yeah you're
not allowed to do it so Since you can't talk,
you have to do something. So weird. I would do.
So I know you're laughing already. I haven't
even said anything. So what I'd do is I'd prime
the other pilot with some idea. And then below
10 ,000 feet, it would be a visual trigger. But
the bottom line is my goal was to get them to
laugh prior to them landing. So just prior to
the touchdown, because that way. They botched
their landing. Oh, my God. And mine is better
by default. Oh, my God. I know it sucks. Yeah,
it's kind of foul play. It is foul play. Did
it ever work? Oh, my God. I've had some people
laughing so hard, so hard that they almost couldn't
fly. But I didn't let that happen. But sometimes
humor. I remember once we had this, he was a
Czech airman and we were coming back from Singapore
or Bangkok or something like this. And he was
a bit of an arsehole to everyone. But I got on
really, really well with him. He was in his 50s.
I was in my 20s. He'd gone into the bunk and
he had the second nap because he was about 14
hour flights back on the 200, the Boeing 200.
And he just wanted to come out at 10 ,000 feet
and do a landing. And he was really respected
as a pilot. So everyone let him do that. And
he took his trousers off when he went in to have
a nap. I take them and I go into the galley and
I sew the bottom in a blanket stitch really just
just so full full on like 30 minutes so he gets
his trousers on he can't push his foot through
so he has to land in his boxers And that was
really funny. And everyone was laughing at that.
So this whole aviation thing with humor is really
amazing. We would have brand new second lieutenants.
I was flying C -141s out of McGuire Air Force
Base. This is in the late 80s. And whenever we
had a brand new second lieutenant, we would have
them do things. Because they don't know any better.
They don't know what's right and what's wrong
and what's protocol and what's not. So we'd go
on a trip. We'd go to Africa or whatever. We'd
go someplace. And we would put in their bags,
these, those heavy tie down chains. Cause the
bags are already pretty heavy. Cause we're, we
have to be ready for Arctic. Yeah. I picked up
Tony's and they're heavy, bulky, but we would
add the load master would add chains to their
bags just to get them to carry more. So we just,
I remember this, just this little brand new second
Lieutenant from. She was brand new, just graduated
from West Point. And she's going to Germany just
after graduation. And this is after Mount St.
Helens blew the top, right? So there's all this
supposed ash in the air and stuff. Now, we knew
airplanes and ash, they don't mix. You have to
stay very, very far away from the ash. You know
exactly where it is because it'll destroy the
engines. What we ended up doing, we were coming
back from Germany and this girl was on our plane.
Of course, whenever you see a second lieutenant,
brand new, brand new officer, you have to mess
with them. It's kind of, it's got an aviator
thing to do. It is, isn't it? Yeah. The rookie.
So we said, well, why don't you come to the flight
deck? And, you know, we have, since you're a
lieutenant, you're commissioned now, we have
some important stuff if you don't mind doing
it. So, oh, great. She's thinking this is all
awesome and stuff. So we had her filling up.
After altitude, I want you to take these bags.
They were the barf bags. Take these bags and
put them on the air gasper, fill them up with
air, and then look at the nav and put the latitude,
longitude. Here's the altitude. You have to mark
these bags. So the idea was that there were going
to be air samples. All the way across the ocean.
Oh, my God. So the entire way across the ocean.
Oh, how humiliating. I know, it's so funny. It's
absolutely. See, I wouldn't find that funny.
Oh, she didn't. No, I wouldn't either. And I
wouldn't now. I don't like people pranking me.
I don't find pranks funny. See, this is. Yeah.
But in that industry, it's just path of the course.
Well, you have to. It's kind of a rite of passage.
Yeah. Yeah. But I don't like being on the. And
I don't play pranks on people. I won't do pranks
if they're dangerous. No. If they're going to
hurt somebody or there's... My sister -in -law,
Jean, who you've met, we were laughing one day
about wouldn't it be funny if, and we have this
kind of game, wouldn't it be funny if. So I'd
gone to England and Jean had gone to her mother's
house. She had a key. She'd gone in, disrupted
all the furniture, moved all the paintings. Her
mum came home and thought she'd been burglarised
and about has a panic attack, comes out and calls
the police. Jean's sitting in a car with her
husband laughing. I think one of my kids. This
was incredibly funny to her. I thought it was
funny. funny conceptually, but I would never
transfer the concept to real life. And she went
with it. And it's funny now. We actually tell
this story a lot and my mother -in -law finds
it funny, but she didn't find that funny. And
her heart rate went up and she really thought
she'd been burglarized. Jean also, my friend
Smokey, my friend lived on Colony Barn Road.
So you've been to Jean's house. It's a long road
off the road that I live on. And Jean had gone
to the trouble. I think she spent maybe a thousand
dollars on this sign. And it was... low -income
housing project. And she'd had all these apartments
drawn and had a 1 -800 number and then actually
got the number someone was answering. And it
was the end of Smoky's Road where you have one
house and five acres. And Smoky went crazy thinking
there was low -income apartment buildings going
up. And so she was crazy for a few hours and
then Jean admitted it was her. So Jean does really
expensive, complicated, thorough pranks on people.
But you're laughing now, but you don't think...
It's funny now, but I wouldn't like to be blowing
up those bags. I don't like being mocked or made
fun of, and that's what you're doing. To me,
that isn't funny. So here's an example. Okay,
so we're in Detroit. This is back when my parents
were alive. The whole family converges on my
parents' place. It was like Easter or something
like that. Kids, grandkids, you know, it was
just family mayhem. I walk in, and my brother,
Greg, takes a chunk of cheese. across the room
and whips it at me. Oh, that's funny. That's
funny. Did it hit you in the head? No, no. You
should have opened your mouth and caught it.
No, you can't hit me in that. So you just snatched
it out the air? No, I totally missed. It went
in the corner. So I didn't want it to just sit
in my dad's house, a piece of rotting cheese
in the corner. So I took the cheese and just
went to his coat, which is by the front door.
Oh, funny. I just put it in his pocket. That's
funny. Okay, so. That's funny. Is that a prank
or is that a retribution? No, I don't know. That's
not really a prank. And you're not humiliating
him because I think that would just be funny.
That one I find funny. So you might say that.
I test people by throwing things at them. I'll
do that. So my daughter's boyfriend, I just wanted
to test his reflexes. So I threw a potato at
him and he went to grab it. He missed and then
it knocked a plant over on the stand. So is that
funny? Was it your plant? It was my plant at
my house. He thought it was funny. And then after
that, I would throw things and he'd catch them.
So there was humour in it. And I broke my own
plant. So there's a lot of things, but I don't
like, I wouldn't like that type of humour, but
I get it. And Gene likes to prank people. But
I think maybe, I think as a kid, maybe I just
took myself too seriously. I was made fun of
quite a bit as well. So maybe that's something
to do with it. I had this image to create, to
keep up as a child. Even the water fights in
school. I talked about the food fights. I did
the water fights too. I started all of it. Yeah,
you walk away when all the fun's going on. But
I was a 4 .0 student. I was student council of
the treasury and just lead jazz trumpeter. Nobody
in the world would expect me to cause all these
problems. You were this rebel underneath all
that. That's all it was. So I was a covert operative.
Yeah, you were, didn't you, as a kid? I was good
training. You know, my dad... again, it was,
he'd always call us names and they were sometimes
not, like, we went to my, we went to White Lake,
Michigan and my uncle had a catamaran. You're
familiar with the catamarans, right? It was just,
it was called a Hobie cat. I think it was about
20 foot, 18 or 20 foot. I don't know anything
about sailing, but it was there and I'm like,
well, I'm going to damn well learn. So it was
just me and the Hobie cat and we go out, I just
go out there and I'm trying to figure out how
did this, this whole thing work and get the sail
right. Just no lessons, just. me the hobie cat
in this lake and i got it up on one on one because
deliberately oh yeah yeah i got it up on one
hull is that how you turn then i mean you can
turn without right one hull but what's the point
in getting one side i didn't really intend to
it just happened that way i just got so much
speed and then it took the corner so you're you're
laying out on i don't know what the i don't know
these terms i was just a kid yeah i'm laying
out trying to keep it balanced and then eventually
I did something wrong and the bow, the forward
bow of the lower hull dug in and I launched.
I launched like probably, it was probably hilarious
to watch. I was 20 feet in the air, just took
a dive and the Hobie care was completely upside
down where the mast was straight down. It's not
even the middle of the lake. Yeah. I'm like.
And how did you feel? Were you thinking that
was funny or were you self -conscious? Oh, you
know, I. When you hit the water that hard. Yeah.
It's sobering. It's like you got the air punched
out of you. So when I'm sitting there, I swim
back to the boat. I'm like, dang, how do I get
back now? Because there's my upside down Hobie
cat. Yeah. So I righted it and I ended up getting
it, you know, getting my weight and riding it.
And I got back. And to me, I was proud of myself
because I. Did something that... Yeah, learned
the hard way. I learned, I took my knocks. And
then righted the situation. I was pretty proud
of myself for even attempting that. To go back,
yeah. And then just the whole experience, I learned
from it, and I became better. Even though I got
freaking plastered out there from this experience,
I learned from it. So I make my way back, my
dad in front of everybody. Like, everybody was
there. Started calling me Captain Nemo, which
is the submarine captain, whatever. That's not
okay with me. It wouldn't have been with me either.
I wouldn't have liked it. He was totally making
fun of me. What do you do if your kid and your
dad's, you know, and that wasn't just, that wasn't
a one -off thing. My dad made fun of all of us
and I seem to catch a lot more of it for some
reason. What was he trying to do? Strengthen
you or something? Well, I don't know. Maybe he
felt inadequate as a man himself. You can't,
you can't fight your dad. You can't push back.
So I would do things like, like this one time
I was at his house and he was making fun of me.
So I just left and I took paper towels. And I
stuffed them all the way in the toe of his slipper.
Right. Oh, that's funny. I just packed it up.
So I was just packed in this when he put on his
slipper. Yeah. It was like, damn, my foot got
big. And to make that funny, you would have had
to have imagined his reaction in your mind because
you'd have to use your imagination. It was very
benign. No big deal. He reaches and it's done.
But it is very funny. That's good. The funny
part to me was that. I didn't get blamed for
it. My brother did. Oh, my God. It was a great
life because I never got blamed for anything.
Yeah. But I got away with it. Yeah. I got away
with so much stuff. Yeah, clandestine. Totally
covert operative. It's crazy. So this has been
a lot of fun. Yes, it's been good. Do you have
any other notes about humor? No, nothing at all.
No, I'm done now laughing for the next month.
It's been good, though. It's been good. I'm really
grateful for those of you listening and you have
some funny quips and things, you know, certainly
drop us a note. You can go to soul decodes .com.
This is, I think this is the farting preacher
video. We should try to put a link to that. You
know, take some time to laugh at yourself, find
humor. Yeah. Whatever it takes to bring some
levity. And once you can do it for yourself,
you see, you can't give something that you don't
have. So if you take yourself so seriously, what
kind of joy and light and levity are you going
to bring to other people? Yeah. So learn to laugh
at yourself, not for the purpose of being able
to laugh at others, but to be an example for
them to learn to laugh at themselves. Yeah. Right?
Yeah. Do you have anything to add to that? No,
I find it quite difficult to laugh at myself.
Well, maybe this is... No, it's getting better
with age. Maybe this is for you. Like a mature
cheese. Maybe it is for me. Now, I can laugh
at myself, yeah, but it's not always been easy.
I'm quite a serious person, but I respect that
as being something I could pursue. I'll teach
you. Okay, thank you. Because I'm like the biggest
goofball. I'm like the biggest goofball out there,
so you're going to be really... Tickled. Tickled
with how absurd you are. I hope so. In an adorable
way. In an adorable way. Okay, y 'all. Go to
souldecoaches .com. And for those of you who
listened to the past couple episodes and you
saw that we had things that were previously recorded
from other episodes, go back and listen to those.
It's not like those items were not valuable to
listen to. They're actually really good episodes
with some really good lessons and some really
good sharing between us. So just because it was
previously recorded doesn't mean it wasn't really
valuable. It's just that Sarah and I just couldn't
pull it together last week. I couldn't pull it
together, everyone, because I had a bigger fish
to fry and I moved house and I'm here with my
niece trying to hold everything together. So
it was my fault. There's no fault. It's all good.
But that's why we had the foresight to record
some spares. Yeah, it's nice to have a few in
the can. We had a few spares, so we might as
well burn them. Okay, y 'all, have a great week.
We'll see you next Friday. Take care. Bye, everyone.
airs every Friday on the Earth Angel Media Network.
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