I speak of the “Humor Impaired.”

Most normal people have no idea how difficult life can be for the humor impaired. You see us all around, people who seem to be normal in most ways, their disability hidden from the world until that critical moment at a social function or career advancing opportunity. That’s when the disability delivers it’s cruelest blows.

Sometimes it’s congenital. Sometimes it’s acquired. Some of us have our humor knocked right out of us like some sort of comedy pinata. Like most things the early signs can be subtle, and many people don’t realize they are humor impaired until it is too late.

For me it started early. “Pull my finger…. LAUGH boy! That’s dang funny!”

Humor deficiency can be complete or partial. For me the humor processing portions of my brain still operate mostly in the irony and sarcasm glands. So although I am stricken with advanced humor impairment, I still find Monty Python and the Coehn brothers hilarious.

No, the portions of my brain’s humor processing that seem to have failed entirely are the slapstick and bodily function cortices. Along with the “someone falls off a horse” complex and the “it’s funny because I’m not the one hurt” plexus.

Research indicates that little can be done to heal the humor impaired. Once you start to cringe when someone on a motorcycle clangs into a low-hanging sign and gets launched off their bike like a leather-clad projectile, you will probably never again feel the full-throated hilarity of the normal person’s “HA! That’s gotta HURT!! HAHA!!” response.

So if you can find it in your hearts, please donate generously to the “Help the Humor Impaired” foundation. Because if we can’t find something to laugh about, at least we can enjoy spending your money.