Are You Funny? Like Funny Ha Ha?

There is huge cultural, financial and sexual capital to be gained from having a GSOH, but is it something that can learnt? And what is its true value?

I was raised in a very funny household. Sharp wit, quick comebacks and withering, yet hysterical put downs were par for the course. Even toilet humour had a look in. Unfortunately, I wasn’t funny at all, and even more unforgivably, I took myself very seriously. While my brother and mum would be in stitches, I’d roll my eyes at their puerility. When, as the odd one out, I did try to join in, I cringingly tried too hard. Nothing less funny than that. I just wasn’t a laugh out loud kinda gal, caught up instead with a dour drive and determination which makes my current level of focus look breezy in comparison. I suppose there was a kind of joyless uptightness to my personality and without joy there can be no comedy, even when we speak of the sootiest shade of humour.

But at some point, something changed. I can’t put a finger on when or how, but if feedback is to be believed, these days, I make people laugh. One reader told me that my account of nit-mania this week made them spit out their coffee. I mean, we’re all absolutely laughing at me. But laughing nonetheless. I had always presumed that humour was in your DNA and that you either popped out amusing or staid, but evidence suggests that the chuckles can indeed be cultivated. If I can evolve from dry AF to LOL over the space of a couple of decades, there’s hope for us all.