“Humor - yesterday’s, that is”

Published June 14, 1995

1904: Regarding Obscene Post Cards (from Coloma Courier), “Local dealers in souvenir postal cards are hard hit by the recent ruling of the P.O. Department, which bars from the mails all offensive postal cards, and they will have to destroy a portion of their stock at a loss, as souvenir fiends will not care to purchase what cannot be sent by mail to friends. The government does not desire to discourage cards bearing a picture of some point of interest, but all obscene cards will be confiscated.

“Censorship will be applied not only to suggestive pictures but views of women in French bathing costumes or in scanty oriental attire, reclining on divans, and the type that includes red devils and bearing legends as, ‘I’m having a XXX of a time’ and ‘What the XXX do you want now?’”

Because humor often depends on its shock effect for a laugh, we usually find it on the edge of convention and tied into the current value system. I’ve always found the following poem funny because I can relate to it even though it was published in 1897 in “Rhymes To Be Read,” by Raymon Vance Cooke. A modern youth might misunderstand certain words and find it offensive or hilarious for different reasons:

A COURTIN’ CALL

HIM!

He dressed hisself from top t’ toe

T’ beat the lates’ fash’n,

He gave his boots a extry glow,

His dicky glistened like the snow,

He slicked his hair exactly so,

An’ all t’ indicate his pash’n.

He tried his hull three ties afore

He kep’ the one on that he wore.

HER

All afternoon she laid abed

To make her featchurs brighter.

She tried on ev’ry geoun she hed,

She rasped her nails until they bled,

A dozen times she frizzed her head

An’ put on stuff to make her whiter,

An’ fussed till she’d ‘a’ cried, she said

But that ‘id make her eyes so red.

THEM!

They sot together in the dark

‘Ithout a light, excep’ their spark,

And neither could have told er guessed

What way t’other un was dressed.

Humor is recognized as a good tool in the disciplining of children. We may think of this as a modern discovery, but way back in 1905 an unnamed father used it successfully enough to have this story recorded in the Courier:

“A Coloma young man, who had been repeatedly warned not to go to Paw Paw Lake, slipped out quietly the other night and did not return until midnight. Fearing that his parents might be aroused if he returned to the house, he decided to spend the rest of the night under an old beech tree standing guard of the home dwelling. In the death-like stillness of the early morning, his sonorous sleep voice awakened his father, whose bed was by the window.

“Suddenly a form clothed in white touched the sleeper on the arm; the snoring eased, sleepy eyes opened, beheld the specter, and screamed like the 5:00 o’clock whistle. He sprang from his reclining position and started to run around the house, but he couldn’t shake the white form at his heels. In despair, he decided to brave parental discovery and made a dash through the door and upstairs to his room. The ghost vanished. Presently a voice which he recognized as his father’s called to know if he was in bed. Of course he was!”

If anybody has this story in family archives I’d love to know the identity of that creative father. It would be the kind of story a family would enjoy passing on.

It’s funny how much better off we are when we can laugh at our difficulties. My mom used to recite a poem by Douglas Malloch called “The Funny Side.” I don’t have room here for all of it, but it went like this:

Today we sat and talked about

The time the gasoline gave out.

And Father woke the farmer up

And all he did was sic his pup

on Dad. He hiked to town

Where things close up when night comes down.

And how at last he found a man,

Who charged a dollar for the can

Another for the gasoline...

Today we all recalled the scene,

And talked it over, fore and aft,

And laughed, and laughed,

and laughed, and laughed.

If anybody would like the rest of the poem I’ll be glad to send it to you.