Not Funny

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I, like a lot of people, look up to the wonderful Amy Poehler. She is a superb person to admire. Aside from starring in some of the greatest shows of all time, Parks and Recreation or Saturday Night Live, she excels at giving advice. This is more notably seen through her memoir-book “Yes Please” and her website Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. Her book and her advice column on her website are jammed-packed with great and important advice on how to deal with life. One specific tip that she pointed out was, “…if a boy says something that isn’t funny, you don’t have to laugh.” I think about this a lot. 

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I’m pretty certain that we’ve all found ourselves in situations when a boy (or girl or whatever pronoun they identify with) said something that they thought was funny yet, you didn’t think it was as amusing as they hoped it had been. However, you found yourself laughing to ease the awkwardness from this exchange. Is laughing really our best option at being polite? Why can’t we be upfront about what we think?

I recently started to be more honest about the things I like and don’t. And, when I don’t laugh at jokes my well-meaning yet, offensive friends (or family) say, I get called a buzzkill, or killjoy, or party pooper. You get the jist. 

My intentions are not to kill anyone’s buzz, or to infringe on anyone’s First Amendment right, they’re simply to be as honest as I can be to the people I love and to myself. That’s more or less it. 

Sure, there was a time were some offensive jokes used to make me laugh so hard that I couldn’t breathe correctly afterwards. But now, I can’t decide if the reason why I don’t find them funny is because I am above this, or I’ve become more sensitive towards certain topics. I can’t provide answers nor do I require an answer. I guess this is just part of growing up. 

<3

- Vianey

Vianey is a nineteen year old self-identified ranter who can be easily wooed by funny three-dimensional TV characters. When she is not watching sitcoms, bugging her pets, or dancing sporadically she posts every Friday on Kaleid-Eh-Scope.