I’m continue to be fascinated by the search terms people have used which have led them to this blog.  The regular searches for ‘houses with yellow front doors’ is particularly intriguing; not that they arrive here, because I wrote a post on the subject, but that there are so many people looking for such a thing online.  Why?

Sometimes a smile is all you need

Recently there has been a peak in searches for ‘sense of humour’, which of itself is amusing to me, as the only post I’ve written on the subject is about the frequent failure of mine when faced with mainstream comedy.

It’s the example I always use if someone asks me to explain that writing  instruction that one must ‘show not tell’.  Rather than tell the reader that something was funny, you have to write an amusing scene, because for a reader like me, as soon as I see that something has been described as ‘hilarious’ or ‘side-splitting’, I immediately think ‘I bet it wasn’t. Prove it.’

Amusement is such a personal response that it can’t be forced or predicted.  A few months ago I went to a comedy  night in the basement of a pub in Crouch End .  It was perhaps unfortunate that I didn’t get there early enough not to have to sit right in the middle of the front row.   It was probably more unfortunate that I didn’t find the compère amusing, and that, even though I was making a conscious effort to keep as neutral an expression on my face as I could, whatever he saw there brought out the aggressive side of his nature.  He started haranguing me for not finding him funny; a strategy I couldn’t help but feel was somewhat misplaced, and one which was unlikely to convert me.

Fortunately, there is nothing more entertaining than telling the tale of an entirely unfunny comedian, once the torture of having to listen to them has ceased.

And this has led me to that ‘laughing at’ or ‘laughing with’ distinction; one a joyful sharing of an experience, the other something more cruel (but let’s be honest, not necessarily less enjoyable).

There are other subtle distinctions of language in this area, which enrich our usage of it, but which must also add to the pitfalls waiting for the person trying to learn English.  What of the difference between ‘funny’ and ‘laughable’?

I had fun looking them up in the thesaurus (each to their own entertainment, after all)

‘Funny’ can be amusing, comical, droll, witty (and might make you laugh) or  odd, quaint, weird, peculiar and  strange (which probably won’t).

‘Laughable’ on the other hand, could never be described as a good thing, being risible, pitiful, pathetic, ridiculous, absurd, preposterous, ludicrous, embarrassing, inadequate, derisory and mediocre.  I do find it interesting that the list of synonyms for this is longer than that for ‘funny’.  What does this say about us, I wonder?

I couldn’t resist looking up ‘Funny’ in the dictionary, where the most amusing thing I learnt was the word before it is ‘funniosity’ which, even though spellchecker doesn’t like it, is a real word, and not something made up by a judge on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ as you might otherwise suppose, and means ‘a comical thing’.

So, your task for today is to use it in a sentence!