Describing Yourself

We continue with our series on The Practice of Pigeonholing People: Normal Human Behavior or Evil Plot to Drive Us Crazy?

But first, an update:

Today's Facebook offerings on Super Son included a new moniker by a classmate; he is characterized as "Someone who will always make you LOL."

This struck a nerve, because I was recently given a mug which read LOL.

Let me explain.

I am a member of a secret cabal select few small gang of sassy women who have dubbed ourselves "The Smart Girls Club." (Our unofficial name is too rude to post on my blog.) At Christmas, we had a small gift exchange, and one of the women gave us each cute coffee mugs with text messages imprinted on the sides. One had XOX, another had BFF. I can't remember what the others had. I received LOL. Presumably, she chose them based on our personalities. For one brief moment, I was envious of the other women. Were they more lovable than me?

Then I got over it.

It's not so bad to be known as the one who makes people laugh. It beats the hell out of being the one that makes people depressed or disgusted.

Sure, it's nice to be recognized as multi-talented, gorgeous, brilliant...but I'll settle for being funny. Especially since my friends also let me know that they think I am kind and smart.

High school kids are not typically as good as my buddies at satisfying their friends' need for recognition of more than one attribute. And maybe the need isn't as great in some of them. Some might be very content to be acknowledged in any way, for anything.

I told Super Son that he should be grateful he's considered the funny one. It shows that people admire his wit, and share his sense of humour. There are a lot of professional actors who would kill for his ability to improvise and his clever mind. There are many actors and actresses who agonize about not being taken seriously because they are primarily admired for their looks. Many who are considered sex symbols deliberately choose parts that cast them as plain or even downright strange or ugly characters to shed the stereotype.

Consider, for example, this:
Well, maybe it's not the very best example, since Johnny Depp's Edward still attracts a girl. But surely this one shows the actor's willingness to be utterly unattractive.

His Willy Wonka was just creepy.

I love Johnny Depp, especially in his Jack Sparrow persona, but I'd pick the funny guy who preceded him in the first film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory any day of the week.



How about you? How important is it to you that someone has the ability to make you laugh?