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Has SMA impacted your sense of humour?
I used to joke with a friend that having a sibling completely rewires your sense of humor. Suddenly, your idea of fun is both torturing and protecting this other human being you’re related to — and no one who doesn’t have siblings understands it. The impact of SMA is similar, I’ve found. Some days, I’m joking about how much I dislike living with it; other days, I’m joking about how non-disabled people react to it. And no one really feels comfortable with my jokes unless they have SMA themselves. Not even caregivers or doctors.
What about you? Do you feel like SMA has affected your sense of humor? What’s your favorite joke that you’ve ever told about your condition? I’ll share mine below!
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4 Replies
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I think my favorite joke that I’ve told about my condition came last year, when I was really struggling with the chronic pain from my kyphoscoliosis. I was talking to fellow SMA News Today columnist Brianna Albers, when I said, “The universe gave me kyphoscoliosis not just to confirm to me that I’m not straight, but that I am indeed bisexual, as I bend both ways!”
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Ha, good one. 😂 I definitely think that SMA has impacted my sense of humor. Sometimes you just can’t take life too seriously. Where’s the fun in that if you did?
I can’t think of one moment in particular, but I will say, whenever someone tells me I’m funny, I always respond with, “Thank you! It’s the trauma.” It’s funny to watch people’s reactions because they never assume I have a sense of humor. I may or may not get a little joy out of making people uncomfortable with my dry remarks.
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Never wanting to minimize the seriousness or difficulties of SMA< but for me, a sense of humor is necessary and as Alyssa said, we have to be able to laugh. Finding humor is a way of finding grace, for me, as well as others. It also can help break the ice with someone having difficulty interacting with someone in our situation.
My favorite joke stems from me needing to use a power wheelchair fulltime starting about 10 years ago. Before that, I rarely drank because I needed all of my faculties and remaining physical skills to be focused and sharp to help navigate and reduce the chance of falling. So, now that I’m in a chair, I still don’t drink alcohol, but I like to joke about that. I was at lunch with a friend and his wife, and the waiter was outgoing, albeit a little tentative with me. He came to the table asking if any of us wanted the “drink special of the day” and described it. My friend and his wife both said yes. The waiter looked at me, “Sir?” I replied, “No, I better not as I might not be able to walk out of here.” My friend and his wife, both knowing my sense of humor, started laughing. The waiter was clearly struggling to not laugh. I said, “Dude, that’s some of my best stuff – you have to laugh!” To which he responded with a huge sigh and then started a warm laugh. He actually thanked me for helping him to feel more comfortable around me. I’ll use variations of that periodically when the topic of drinking comes up or one is offered. Okay, admittedly a little warped, but it is my humor about me.
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I agree that a sense of humor is necessary. My favorite story is from a little over 30 years ago when I was still walking but with a severe gait. I was at a conference with a colleague and friend who knew me quite well. We were getting on an elevator with a bunch of other people from the conference. I had really bad hiccups. He asked, “Paul, are you okay?” I replied, “No, I have a muscle disease.” After a moment he started laughing, and everyone else gave us really strange looks.
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