There are a handful of qualities that set us apart as human beings from all other creatures. Laughter is one of them. There are other characteristics that seemingly raise the bar in varying degrees attesting to our higher levels of functioning but laughter in my opinion reigns as king – or queen – of them all. Some of our fellow creatures appear to laugh and the sound of their laugh-like howls is somewhat credible, but there are no critters to my knowledge that experience that deep and full belly laugh that hurts the stomach and taxes the lungs as it overwhelms you. While it verges on pain it is a delightful wracking of the body, a bout of pure joy that leaves you exhausted and limp. So, in the face of this what makes us laugh, what constitutes humor, what is it that sets off this reaction?

Humor in many ways is very personal. Some things are funny to us, others not so much. Some things can set us off in gales of laughter, while it causes others to merely roll their eyes. Some things cause some to smile as though they’re party to a secret body or privy to special information or knowledge, causing others to frown or cross their eyes as outsiders cut off from specialness.

Then there are some things that strike everyone in pretty much the same way, and there is a common peal of laughter from the midst. This laughter is the most enjoyable and deeply appreciated by everyone because of its common cause. There is something appealing about a jointly experienced something, of a shared emotion, a mutual knowing. To double over in painful laughter in community is something to behold and makes us decidedly human.

The humor of puns for the most part doesn’t measure up to a painful belly laugh or rolling on the floor. It is more subtle, more sophisticated, more devious in how they sneak up on us, and the really good ones really do sneak up on us. Their play-on-words builds to a climax and their devious nature launches the surprise ending that wreaks havoc with staid and lock-step reality. Humor ultimately relies on words, thus the pun, but it also depends on delivery, how it is said, the forest that surrounds the tree. Think of these pages as that forest and enjoy the trees.

My grandchildren, Casey (13 years 7 months), Venice (13 years 4 months), Xander (10 years 7 months), and Teiya 10 years 4 months), have contributed some of the artwork for this volume as they have for previous volumes of this series. It is continually intriguing to me that they willingly participate in these ventures, and especially that they find these puns enjoyable. I attribute this to the state of their agile minds, to their nascent intellect, and the gene pool that passed along to them the bent mind of a doting grandfather.

Gordon H. Nagai ~ Eugene, OR ~ Summer 2015