O Brother, How Funny Art Thou

Why does my brother make me laugh hysterically? I mean when he was 2 and it was my oldest little sister's birthday... we went to Panchos. It is a good, cheap, all you can eat place, with good food and sopapillas to die for, anyhow, we loaded up and went. Well my brother has always been shall we say "eccentric"? You see if they know it is your birthday Panchos will take a picture of you with a huge sombrero on you head.

We weren't leaving without the picture. No way in hell. My family likes public embarrassment. So what does this have to do with my brother? Well you see all this time while we were worried about my sister and wishing her a happy birthday, my brother (two-years-old) has taken off his shirt and is dancing to the happy birthday song, that is not quite it, he is dancing, with his finger jammed up to the second knuckle, in his nose... and he can be seen in my sister's happy birthday picture. It may not be the fist ever photobomb, but it is one I will take with me to the grave. I cannot find the actual picture right now, but Never fear, I am tearing up the place looking for it...

My mother has hundreds more stories like this, most of them involve some kind of public humiliation. What can I say? All it takes for a rise in the family is a little mortification. Fall on your face? Perhaps your shoes got misplaced and someone nailed them to the wall (yes it happened to me, and it is a funny story that lives on)? Maybe you accidentally crap your pants. Yep, this is the cause for endless laughter (hell, I can barely type right now for laughing). But it is more than humiliation... the person that is suffering indignity has to acknowledge that it is pretty funny... and it usually grows in humorousness with time. So it is not like we are laughing right when it is happening (mostly).

And what causes the funniness to grow even more? My wife. She looks at me like I am crazy and doesn't understand why I think something is so funny, which only makes me laugh all the harder. Maybe one day she'll get it, or perhaps not. Good thing for her I love her anyway. :o)