And Now for Something Completely Different

Have you ever seen Monty Python’s “And Now for Something Completely Different?”

This collection of their most memorable skits includes one about the world’s funniest joke.

We are looking over a disheveled man’s shoulder. He is hunched over a desk scribbling on a piece of paper. On the floor of his ill-kept bedroom are piles of crumpled paper, his discarded joke-writing attempts.

The voice-over tells us that the man, Ernest Scribbler, is about to write the world’s funniest joke.

The writer (Michael Palin) writes the joke, giggles, and starts laughing hysterically. Clutching the paper, he falls over dead.

His mother (Eric Idle) enters the room and is horrified at her son’s lifeless body. She snatches the paper from his hand, thinking it is a suicide note.

She reads it, laughs, laughs harder, then laughs even harder, and falls over dead.

The joke (of course, we never see it) is turned into a secret weapon in World War II. It is translated into German by isolated teams of translators working one word at a time.

Then we see German soldiers reading leaflets dropped by the British, breaking into laughter, and keeling over.

Imagine how much fun they had shooting this bit of dark humor!

Imagine watching a bunch of cut-ups pretending to read a piece of paper, laughing, and falling over.

Can you imagine if someone got the giggles? I’ve love to see the outtakes!

That’s because when you engage the physical laughter mechanism, you really do start laughing.

You don’t need a reason. When the hard wiring is activated, the body laughs. No joke required.

Force yourself to laugh. It’s silly, but you will really start laughing.

It will change your state of mind.

And you will experience something completely different.

Copyright 2004 by Tony Papajohn. Tony writes and speaks on success. Subscribe to his free SuccessMotivator e-zine at http://www.successmotivator.com.

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