08.05.08

My Kind of Humor

Posted in Humor, My Life at 1:58 am by Freeman Wicklund

Common Blue Morpho taken with camera in “Multi Burst” mode.

My friend Tyler MacDonald invited me to the conservatory in Columbus where we saw butterflies and plants. It was sweet.

Unfortunately, I had left my camera at the North Virginia hotel where I had stayed the previous weekend for the Taking Action for Animals conference. Thankfully, I called the hotel as soon as I realized my camera was missing. They had the camera in their lost and found, but were preparing to send it to another lady who claimed it was hers. Thankfully, the little slip of paper with my name, address, phone number, and email that I put in the camera case pocket — and then told them about — helped to convince them that it was actually mine.

However, someone must have messed with my camera. No, there are no interesting and sordid new pictures for me to share with you. Someone had just switched the camera to the “multi burst” setting which means the camera takes 16 small pictures really rapidly and makes them into the kind of picture you see above. Oblivious to this hucksterism, I took all of my photos at the conservatory in this manner which is why you get to see the same common blue morpho sixteen times.

You may be curious about this butterfly’s name. Well, when he opens his wings, you see a lot of pretty blue, but when they are closed you see the pretty brown pattern above.

Like the morpho, not all butterfly’s names are apparent. There were also some butterfly’s known as crackers, and I was suprised they weren’t white. But it turns out they get their name from jumping and making cracking noises while in their chrysalises to scare off predators, so I suppose that name makes sense too.

Anyway, this is a rather long and rambly introduction to the wonderful joke that Tyler told me. So with out further ado, here it is:

What is green and has wheels?

Grass. I was kidding about the wheels.

I love absurdist humor. Just remembering this joke as I stand in line at the Post Office causes me to start laughing out loud — sometimes to the point of tears. So the next time you see a lone person laughing in public for no reason, don’t assume their crazy. They could just be funny on the inside.

Speaking of absurdist humor. One of my favorite works of this kind is Eugene Ionesco’s play,  The Bald Soprano. Follow the link for the full text of it. I haven’t read it in nearly 18 years, but I remember laughing hysterically at it the last time I did. Enjoy!

This text was written and the photos were taken in 2008 by Freeman Wicklund of FreemanWicklund.org, and it may be freely reprinted or distributed in any e-zine, e-mail, newsletter or blog as long as this sentence and its Web links are included.

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