I’ve often used the phrase “born without a humor gene” to describe people who just don’t seem to get any type of humor but I had never really considered there might actually BE a humor gene.
Guess what? There might be.
After doing some research, ( Actually I googled “what the hell is wrong with people who can’t laugh?”) I found that there has long been a debate on whether humor is attributed to nature or nurture.
On the nature side, scientists have studied the short and long alleles of the gene 5- HTTLPR………….Oh god this is boring……… blah blah blah, zippa-dee -doodah, if you care you can google it.
Further research ( and so much funnier) lead me to some writing by David Grimm that labels the gene the HAHA-1.
I like that one so I’m going with it. Funny people may be born with the HAHA-1 gene.
However, on the nurture side, a child born without the HAHA gene to a parent with the gene can still develop a sense of humor when exposed to humor on a daily basis.
Parents can:
Tuck their child in at night wearing this:
Play peek-a-boo and laugh like crazy
Make up funny stories in answer to serious questions the child asks.
For example “where is Uncle Fred?” might be answered with:
“Prison”
followed by a long convoluted story about why .
At the end of the story make sure you laugh and say “just kidding!”
Unless he is in prison and then you’d answer:
“Dead”
Make sure to laugh and say “just kidding!” as soon as you say “dead”.
Unless Uncle Fred really is dead and then you probably don’t want to laugh.
Parents who laugh about those things just end up with damaged kids.
The long and short of it is that some people just don’t get it. If you weren’t born with the HAHA gene and you weren’t raised by a parent with a sense of humor then you might be one of those people with the blank stare.
It’s okay. Somebody has to be able to slog through the research papers without inserting “zippa-dee-doodah” in the report.
There is a place for everyone.
Probably not my blog because I’m usually here wearing a fake nose, playing peekaboo with the dog and writing about Uncle Fred going to prison for stealing a clown car from the circus with the clowns still in it. ( He was charged with grand theft tiny auto and clownnapping)
Just kidding!
He is really quite dead.
A test. Did you laugh?
Ramble in the Bramble 
Kathy, This is a very similar situation we had when my Mom ‘s second Husband died suddenly. I went to Florida to drive back with my Mom to the west coast. We stopped at the mortuary to take care of Dear Jim’s (I never knew him) remains. He was in a box, a very heavy box, when I realized that dear Jim was to ride 3000 miles on the front seat of the truck with me, I said “no way am I riding with Jim sitting next to me. Next best thing was to ship him by mail. (This story is longer then I realized.) My husband David accepted the package at his business in San Diego, thinking gee this is heavy. Jim had not been to our house but had mentioned when he did visit he wanted to go for a ride in our 1952 Bentley. The car was our daily driver, so David placed the box (not knowing the contents) in the car and drove home. Jim at last got his last ride in style before being placed on a shelf in the closet of what would become my Mom’s temporary room. When arriving home from Florida, Mom asked if Jim’s ashes had arrived and David was totally blown away he had been chauffeuring Jim’s remains. Jim was forgotten on shelf in the closet for the next eight years until we moved and told Mom to pick up the ashes.