To Laugh

[mesotablar]

This is my entry for this month’s carnival of aros that I was hosting (mesotablar.dreamwidth.org/15144.html)

To Laugh

For this month’s carnival of aros I want to share some of my favoured humorous content, from knock knock jokes to wholesome pics. (And because I can’t help myself I wrote about why I think it is important too.) 

Many years ago I watched a documentary* that opened my eyes to the importance of humour. One segment was an interview with a Soviet Union stand-up comedian who said something along the lines of: once people were laughing they stopped being afraid.

Knock Knock Who's there A Roman A Roman who? Aromantics!

There once was an Aro named Clyde Who was cornered by a zealous bride. Demanding grand gestures of love, Dozens of roses, chocolates and a dove. While Clyde would rather just hide.

Knock Knock Who's there? A mat A mat who? Amatonormativity!

 

I think jokes and memes are important for any healthy group. If you can’t poke fun at yourself and survive then it must be a brittle or unhealthy community. There are social and cultural aspects to humour so it is possible that things do not ‘translate’ when crossing languages, nations or classes. Individual people have different tastes in humour as well, so there needs to be a range from wholesome to biting. At its core, most good jokes have a grain of truth and long as it is based on a truth, even if others don’t find it funny, they will (hopefully) be able to recognise that truth and learn something.   

'Arospec Awareness Week' by DesDraws

I have noticed that there are some jokes and memes floating around but the amusing side of the aro experience is still fairly small. I love scrolling through the You Might Be Aro If…. (YMBAI) thread on Arocalypse because I relate to some, learn from others and have the chance to laugh with the community.
 

'YMBAI you found kiss scenes in the middle of action completely stupid. Like, why are you kissing right now when zombies are about to kill you?' - DannyFenton123

I love finding new aro memes because they generally are funny but they also signal that someone was thinking about a certain aro issue and then took the time and effort to make something of it. Content grows from every single person putting their thoughts forward. Every project in Photoshop, every brain-fart post, every comic doodle, every crafted story, every silly joke, every artistic masterpiece adds to our aro culture. So thank you content creators for making something fun!  

'Aromantic Awareness Bird' by witchydigit
(The humour in this one is the colour association to the Madagascan Lovebird)

 

*I apologise for not being able to remember/find the title at this time. I have detailed things as I remember them so I apologise for all inaccuracies. I might be able to edit in and correct details in the future. Also apologies for not giving credit for the two memes, I couldn't track down their first instances of use.