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"Hiding" behind humor

PoetPhilosopher

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
I'm going to change away from my wolverine avatar (which started as a joke) within a couple days. Since I've come back, I've kind of for lack of better words, been using a lot of humor, but kind of hiding behind humor rather than being serious, because it's easier to hide behind humor than bring yourself to say some things I want to...

In the past I've kind of screwed up some situations due to not responding real well to them. My mind kind of works fast and disjointed. I've realized I need to incorporate more meditation in my life and be happier, and one way I figured that out is I took some psychology tests I found online recently that tried to answer questions like "Am I happy?" and "Am I peaceful?" and I scored disappointingly low on them. One thing I have struggled with is that the political atmosphere in the past, in the world and on TV, kind of gave me near-PTSD for awhile I think. I actually don't think it was so much any one politician's fault either, actually. Just the product of when all the wheels aren't turning together and it seems to get broadcast 24/7 on TV.

So what I've been doing lately... man I've been doing a lot. I focus a lot on the spiritual side these days. I actually dedicate a lot of time to trying to gain wisdom through the spiritual side, but I prefer learning without books to an extent. Being self-taught by the spiritual side, only using books mostly for leads and fact-checking. It'd be hard to describe on forums my deep spiritual experiences, I don't know the terminology for a lot of things and I risk my words coming off like a teenager trying to describe their first crush. I've tried to describe my spiritual experiences, endeavors and goals, but I don't think I'm very good at it.

So one of the reasons why I've been hiding behind humor a bit? Is that to humanize myself means putting it all on the table, and if people criticize you, its "closer to home" so to speak, then if you're just talking about Peewee Herman or something and people don't like that :)

So I'm kind of a funny person, but my humor isn't as outright and varied as what I've been doing. I'm actually kind of plain. So yeah, I may not be able to switch to being more serious all at once, but I might glide into being a bit more serious in the coming days, because it's just more me.
 
Subduction Zone

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Revoltingest said:
I advise that you should do what calls to you.
And I'm pro Pee Wee.
Click to expand...
I remember watching Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure in the theater. I knew that the whole movie was idiotic and that the jokes were childlishly simple and bad. And yet I could not stop laughing. I was happy that the jokes slowed down a bit in the middle because I was in pain from endless laughter. That was an example of movie that is more humorous in the theater. There is something about a shared experience.
 
PoetPhilosopher

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
Subduction Zone said:
I remember watching Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure in the theater. I knew that the whole movie was idiotic and that the jokes were childlishly simple and bad. And yet I could not stop laughing. I was happy that the jokes slowed down a bit in the middle because I was in pain from endless laughter. That was an example of movie that is more humorous in the theater. There is something about a shared experience.
Click to expand...

I think the movie may have gone a bit over my head initially. But it had been years since I watched the show.
 
Jeremiah Ames

Jeremiah Ames

Well-Known Member
KAT-KAT said:
I'm going to change away from my wolverine avatar (which started as a joke) within a couple days. Since I've come back, I've kind of for lack of better words, been using a lot of humor, but kind of hiding behind humor rather than being serious, because it's easier to hide behind humor than bring yourself to say some things I want to...

In the past I've kind of screwed up some situations due to not responding real well to them. My mind kind of works fast and disjointed. I've realized I need to incorporate more meditation in my life and be happier, and one way I figured that out is I took some psychology tests I found online recently that tried to answer questions like "Am I happy?" and "Am I peaceful?" and I scored disappointingly low on them. One thing I have struggled with is that the political atmosphere in the past, in the world and on TV, kind of gave me near-PTSD for awhile I think. I actually don't think it was so much any one politician's fault either, actually. Just the product of when all the wheels aren't turning together and it seems to get broadcast 24/7 on TV.

So what I've been doing lately... man I've been doing a lot. I focus a lot on the spiritual side these days. I actually dedicate a lot of time to trying to gain wisdom through the spiritual side, but I prefer learning without books to an extent. Being self-taught by the spiritual side, only using books mostly for leads and fact-checking. It'd be hard to describe on forums my deep spiritual experiences, I don't know the terminology for a lot of things and I risk my words coming off like a teenager trying to describe their first crush. I've tried to describe my spiritual experiences, endeavors and goals, but I don't think I'm very good at it.

So one of the reasons why I've been hiding behind humor a bit? Is that to humanize myself means putting it all on the table, and if people criticize you, its "closer to home" so to speak, then if you're just talking about Peewee Herman or something and people don't like that :)

So I'm kind of a funny person, but my humor isn't as outright and varied as what I've been doing. I'm actually kind of plain. So yeah, I may not be able to switch to being more serious all at once, but I might glide into being a bit more serious in the coming days, because it's just more me.
Click to expand...

your spiritual side sounds wonderful and rewarding

embrace it, and enjoy
 
Nimos

Nimos

Well-Known Member
KAT-KAT said:
I actually don't think it was so much any one politician's fault either, actually. Just the product of when all the wheels aren't turning together and it seems to get broadcast 24/7 on TV.
Click to expand...
A good rule of thumb when watching news, which I think a lot of people don't really think about, is that these are businesses as any other or sort of like a "youtuber" :) They want viewers and the best way to get those is to put on content that "sells" and apparently bad news, scandals etc. are more "interesting" to humans.

But often you can see a pattern in how news are delivered. Which goes with a lot of bad stuff, scandals, war, conflicts and what other thing is the most interesting bad thing at the moment. In some cases you might have some other thing, like an important space mission or whatever. But then at the very end, there will be a story like "Finally the flowers are blooming" and you see a person in their garden talking about how amazing it is or "People enjoying being able to go to the beach" and how they are having a good time or some other small happy/fun unimportant story, to just make you feel a little better at the end.

It's not because everything in the world is pure ****, it simply gets a lot more attention, because it "sells" better. :)

Imagine two news stations, one: "1500 people killed in yet another terrorist attack, world is in shock" and the other "The honeybee is making a comeback in the world, biologists are thrilled.", I bet you that the 90% of all people are going to watch the first news station. :D
 
lewisnotmiller

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
KAT-KAT said:
So yeah, I may not be able to switch to being more serious all at once, but I might glide into being a bit more serious in the coming days, because it's just more me.
Click to expand...

Ugh, please don't switch to being more serious. Just add seriousness to a base of humour. Then you get the best of both worlds!!
 
lewisnotmiller

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
Nimos said:
A good rule of thumb when watching news, which I think a lot of people don't really think about, is that these are businesses as any other or sort of like a "youtuber" :) They want viewers and the best way to get those is to put on content that "sells" and apparently bad news, scandals etc. are more "interesting" to humans.
Click to expand...

I think even more generally it's pretty good advice to consider the raison d'etre of someone delivering information to you.
Initially this runs the risk of making you cynical of everything, but over time you can build skills around better identifying bias and cross-checking, hopefully without seeing people as 'liars'. They're often just...well...alternatively motivated.
 
Nimos

Nimos

Well-Known Member
lewisnotmiller said:
I think even more generally it's pretty good advice to consider the raison d'etre of someone delivering information to you.
Initially this runs the risk of making you cynical of everything, but over time you can build skills around better identifying bias and cross-checking, hopefully without seeing people as 'liars'. They're often just...well...alternatively motivated.
Click to expand...
Agree, it's not that the bad news are wrong, it just gives a warped impression of the world, if the share between good and bad news are 90 to 10 in favour of the bad ones. So if a person gets depressed by watching them, it's just good to keep in the back of one's head that they do these things on purpose for a reason, which is the same as with any other business, and that is to make money.
 
PoetPhilosopher

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
lewisnotmiller said:
Ugh, please don't switch to being more serious. Just add seriousness to a base of humour. Then you get the best of both worlds!!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I think I'll tone it down though. The backstory is that when I joined, it was kind of just for me and Obsydian to have a few laughs, and he kind of brought out my wild side which I carried on. There's also the chance I kind of saw this as more of a social site like Reddit rather than a religious/political/debate/general/etc site based on some of the topics going on at the time.

I'm actually pretty modest if you knew me the way some of my closest online friends do.

But I'm sure at this point people will be like, "Suuuuure KAT-KAT, remember thread X and Y and Z you made? You're not modest!" to which I'd say sometimes I read the room, then try to be even less serious than that.

But I'm not that way.

So yeah, I'd rather just be like the family member who laughs at the jokes made by @Quagmire or @Revoltingest or others rather than try to get on that level. I think I've been being a bit too theatrical. I didn't mean to maybe create a reputation out of it.

:)

But yeah, if I see someone sad, I'll make a few jokes to cheer them up.
 
lewisnotmiller

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
KAT-KAT said:
So yeah, I'd rather just be like the family member who laughs at the jokes made by @Quagmire or @Revoltingest or others rather than try to get on that level. I think I've been being a bit too theatrical. I didn't mean to maybe create a reputation out of it.
Click to expand...

Good grief, don't go laughing at @Revoltingest and @Quagmire. It'll only encourage them. Think of the children! Won't somebody please think...of...THE CHILDREN...
*sobs uncontrollably*

Meh, sorry. I just figure if you were worried about being over-theatrical, I'd lean in a little. ;)
 
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