Imagination may be more powerful than we have imagined it to be! Imagination is in play when telling a “Funny.” You “see the pictures” of the story or joke in imagination and describe them; your listeners assimilate their view of the pictures in their imagination.

The same dynamic is involved when you CREATE A FUNNY and share it with another. We have viewed four IMAGENARY examples of how imagination can contribute to humor: Bubba; One-arm Fiddler; Man in Hospital; and Tung. Before moving on, consider going back to review these examples. Just key June 8; June 10; June 13; and June 15 (successively) into SEARCH on the Home Page. Remember, you are free to take an idea and create a humorous story by embellishing it as you wish! There is no requirement that it be factual. Imagination IS powerful IN IT’S OWN RIGHT–and is essential for the humorous person!

HOW HAVE YOU DONE WITH “BUBBA SAYINGS” SINCE JUNE 8?” Here are a few more—just for fun! See if there are any you want to “3 X 5”?

Bubba says, “Don’t forget to call me if you can do anything for me!”

Bubba said he doesn’t like hot water because he’s afraid he’ll get in it again.

Bubba refuses to talk when he is by himself.

Bubba said he will not eat road-kill possum that was killed after dark—because he heard that night-blindness is contagious.

Bubba says, “I can show you three ways to skin a possum besides just pulling off the hide.”

Bubba said he will not eat unless he is by himself—or with somebody.

Bubba said he has a friend that is so shy, when he enters the room you have the feeling that somebody just left.

Ask Bubba what state U.C.L.A. is in and he would want to know how to spell U.C.L.A.

Bubba said he was married ten years before he learned that there is no such thing as a headache. Bubba said he has a friend who called the operator to get the number for 911.

Have some fun—and make some fun—with Bubba Stories and “Bubba Sayings,” JUST FOR FUN!

Note:
It was quite awhile between my first interview, with “Tung-In-Cheek, my mythical friend, and this interview. My fault. . . because every day I was trying to “Put out a fire” or “Start a fire.” I had many more questions for “His Immenseness,” and I began this interview with this one: Why do you contend that the Babylonians were some of the Funniest people in the world?

Tung: Because they were! You heard right, the Babylonians were some of the funniest people in the ancient world. By that I mean that they were great joke-tellers!

One of the funniest jokes that continued to make the rounds for several centuries was this knee-slapper:“It is better to always walk beside your camel!” This was fun-ny to the ancient Babylonians and they loved to hear it over and over and over.

Here is an example of camel-humor that was a Babylonian favorite: “It is easier for a talkative Israelite salesman to make a buck than for a camel to lie down and roll over in the mud after a big rain.” I think you will agree, as a funny joke, that is a keeper!

The Ancient Babylonians were quite versatile in humor. Although camel-humor was big with the Babylonians, They also laughed a lot at donkey-humor. Here is an all-time favorite of many upper-level Babylonian comedians in and around the Nile basin where it cuts across the Tigris and Euphrates:“You can lead a donkey to water, but you can’t make the donkey drink if it is not thirsty!”

Do you get it? I guess you had to be there. I could go on and on and on about Babylonian Humor, but it would only be suggestive.

While we were clicking I asked Tung about Passages That have been Misquoted, Misunderstood, or Misused.

Tung: I have deliberately focused my Biblical research on positive aspects of the WORD. There have been exceptions because some passages have been misquoted, misunderstood, or misused. I have established a special and cleaver category for these exceptions which I call “mis-words”: misquoted, misunderstood, misread, mispronounced, mis-remembered, mispoken, mis-copied, and some that have been mis-mashed.

Danny: Can you give us some examples?

Tung: I will speak three more examples. I will stop with these four because I do not want you to be misguided by too many “mis-words.”

One sentence in the birth narrative in Luke’s Gospel is often mis-read this way: “And they went with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. (Luke 2:16, RSV.)” (Another word for manger is “feed trough.” Manger is better for Baby Jesus than feed trough.)

Mary, and Joseph and the Baby Jesus, lying in the same feed trough would require it to be huge. All ancient Biblical scholars, like me, know that they found Mary and Joseph, and that they also found the Babe, who was actually the only one lying in the feed trough. If you read it to mean, or to imply, that all three were lying in a manger, it is enough to make Tung want to laugh aloud, which I almost never do.

Danny: Tung, you said that you have more than one example in your “mis-word” category.

Tung: Many people think they are quoting scripture when they say, “When the ox gets in the ditch, you have to get it out.” That sounds like a worthy action to take, and it may even be true, but it belongs to the “misquoted” category, because it is not a Biblical quotation. It is from Shakespeare.

Danny: You caught me on that one. I always thought it was from the Bible. I guess I was misinformed. Give us another example.

Tung: I think you can handle one more “mis-word” but I will stop after that for fear of you becoming mystified.

Here is a beautiful thought: “God works in strange and mysterious ways, God’s wonders to perform.”

That sounds like it could be a quotation from Psalms, but it is not. It is not scriptural—except in spirit. It comes from a Presbyterian Hymn.

Tung will use this often “mis-quoted” statement from the hymnal to make a point of humor. I discovered a devotional play-on-words in my Biblical research. Some-one changed the words, mysterious to mischievous, wonders to blunders, and perform to reform.

That caused it to read, “God works in strange and mischievous ways, our blunders to reform.”

Quoting it that way is certainly not Scriptural, but that does put a great truth about God in a new light. Perhaps by seeing this unauthorized version, the person can then correctly hear the great truth about God that is expressed in the hymn. “God really does work in strange and mysterious ways, God’s wonders to perform.”

Danny: Thank you, Tung, for your unusual thoughts about “mis-quoted” scripture and other “mis-quoted” things.

THREE DAYS ON CHARACTERS OF IMAGINATION::
June 8th. Bubba
June 10th. One-arm Fiddler
June 13th. Tung-In-Cheek

NOW, A FOURTH DAY: Creative Imagination Knows No Bounds

Did you read about the man who came to our hospital to have his LEFT SIDE removed?

The radical surgery was widely written up in the press. The paper said they were successful in removing his left side, and he’s ALL RIGHT now!

His doctor went to his room after surgery and asked how he felt. He said, “I don’t feel HALF AS GOOD as I did.” He asked, “Doctor, do you think I will ever get myself BACK TOGETHER again?”

His nurse came into his room and said, “Remember now, it’s important for you to LIE ON YOUR SIDE. He HALF MURMERED, “I AM ON MY SIDE!”
She said, “You’ve got to start taking more nourishment. A HALF A COKE is just not enough.”

Right after surgery the doctor took his family on vacation in Hawaii—A HALF A WORLD AWAY..

When he didn’t see his doctor for a few days he became a little peeved. On the doctor’s next visit, the man said HE HAD HALF A MIND to tell him off. Finally he spoke his mind: “I’m irritated with you because YOU LEFT ME and went on vacation!

TWO MATTERS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION::
FIRST: Read over this ’til you have the images in your mind. Look for someone you can say it to—just for fun!

SECOND: Be thinking about something you can write, YOURSELF, USING YOUR OWN CREATIVE IMAGINATION.
(Put it in your Hot House, and
Tell us what you wrote.)

When I was about thirty years old I made my first visit to Disney Land—as it was called then. I had an epiphany when I was coming down from the Disney “Tree House”: “All of this is the result of creative imagination. My second grade teacher was stern when she would say, ‘Don’t sit there, just looking out the window—you need to do your work. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop!”’ She gave me a jump-start on the Protestant Work Ethic. At the tree house I remember saying to my self—”That teacher was wrong: CREATIVE IMAGINATION IS A GOOD THING!”
A Sometime Interview Between Danny,The “Straight Man,”
And Tung-in-Cheek, Famous Old Chinese Biblical Scholar.
( Continuing with Imagination—just for fun!)
INTRODUCTION
DANNY: Thank you for giving us time for an interview. You are such a famous old Chinese Biblical Scholar, I feel I should address you as “YOUR IMMENSENESS!”
TUNG For you, I am Tung.
DANNY: Tung, you appear to be quite old.
TUNG: Although I continue to look good, I am very old. :
DANNY: How old are you?
TUNG: Old enough to be a retired, ancient Chinese Biblical scholar of considerable renown whom you wish to interview.
DANNY: Where did you do your graduate work?
TUNG: At the University of Modern Antiquities.
DANNY: I understand that you have made a serious study of humor in Biblical times.
TUNG: If you were taking a test, you would now have one right! Humor is an extremely serious subject. Some of my discoveries are actually being released right here for the first time in the history of the world. Most everyone will be truly astonished at these astonishing astonishments. My research now being revealed for the first time is in five categories:
1) An “early writer” of the Bible. 2) Jesus’ outstanding contributions to humor. 3) Proverbs as ancient humor.
4) Babylonians as some of the funniest people in the world.
5) How you can make the best use of this timely research “just for fun.”
I only have time to address the first two!
SECTION ONE
DANNY: Tell us about the person you refer to as an “early writer of the Bible.”
TUNG: The name of this early writer of the Bible cannot be spoken. He started writing the Bible when he was very young, in the year 598 ½ B. C. You should feel a close kinship with him because he was in the 4th Century B. C. right where you are in relation to the 21st Century A. D.—just about ready to bust wide open a totally new millennium. I wish I could say his name, but I don’t dare speak it. If I did, you and I would die, and we don’t particularly want that to happen, do we?
DANNY: Has your ancient Biblical research been hard for you?
TUNG: It has been hard and tough! Of course, there are reasons for that. You may have noticed that the ancient Hebrews numbered things backwards. The fifth century came before the fourth century, which came before the third century, which came before the second century.

It would take no less a person than Jesus to get the numbering straightened out, so it ran from first to second, to third, and so fourth.
But even Jesus couldn’t correct the Hebrew practice of writing everything backwards—from right to left instead of from left to right, like the rest of us write.
I wish you could have known the ancient Hebrews. They were something else! I’ve never told this before, but I discovered that they did five other things backwards. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to give a full report of the five things right now.

Section Two
Jesus’ Outstanding Contribution to Humor?
DANNY: What did you discover about Jesus’ contribution to humor?

TUNG: You may think that Jesus was not the funniest person who ever lived. But do not rush to
judgment without being prepared for judgment. If you are not careful, Jesus will slip up on
your blind side with His humor, as he sometimes did to others.

I am not saying that Jesus was a comedian, or even that he was as funny as those hilarious
Babylonians.

But except at the very end, those closest to Jesus frequently saw a curl in his lip. Remember that John said in 11;35, “Jesus wept.” John wouldn’t have mentioned this unusual occurrence if it had not stood out so prominently.

Jesus, also, said some humorous things:
At Pentecost he said that the people were not drunk because it was only 9:00—they hadn’t had time to get drunk.

He gave a new twist to that old Babylonian joke about the camel: “. . . camel through the eye of a needle,” etc.

And Jesus SAW some thing that were humorous:
The sophisticated Zacchaeus perched on the limb of a tree.
What he said about the new wine.
The look on the man’s face as he was let down through the rooftop.
The glee on Peter’s face when he walked on water—and the shock on his face as he
was going under.
The vivid contrast between Martha and Mary.
Mary’s concern that after three days Lazarus had begun to smell.

Jesus also savored humor from within.
I can almost hear him quietly chuckle as the sea became calm. . .
As the officer’s child got up and went out to play. . .
As Peter’s mother-in-law asked for something to eat. . .
The way the people responded after he told any number of parables.

Any of these situations could have made him chuckle inside.

These times, and others, make me think of the “laughing Jesus.”

When we wish to get in touch with the fullness of Jesus, we must make room for his humor. Jesus’ humor was perhaps one of the frequently, overlooked reasons that people loved him so much. His humor was likely one of the many reasons that children were attracted to him.

Interviewed by
Danny E. Morris,
Professor Emeritus,
Various Universities.

The One-arm Fiddler (In my imagination)
It is hard to imagine a one-arm fiddler—unless you can see in his eyes the determination to overcome. He is a winner because he never says, “I quit.” He never uses “I can’t.” He doesn’t know the words, “I failed.” He is a super-achiever in the face of heavy odds against him. It is his single-minded determination to succeed that makes him a model for all of us.

Another veteran wounded in Afghanistan was on today’s news. He lost both legs and the doctors predicted he would be hospitalized for two years. He was released in only four months with two artificial “legs.” He returned home to his young family and a crowd that honored him for his self-less service and horrendous sacrifice. He is a “One-arm Fiddler,” for sure! In our imaginations, we begin watching such a person play his fiddle, and we sense that he moves to music we do not hear! (We soon begin to move to the music he helps us hear.)

Local people are so moved by this returning FIDDLER, they are raising money to build his family a new home, on one floor, with wide doors so he can use a wheelchair inside.

We appreciate and honor every ONE-ARM FIDDLER as an over-comer, a remarkable human specimen, a true champion, and I love to imagine hearing the music from such a fiddle.

If you want to hear the special music played by a ONE-ARM FIDDLER, think of one, close your eyes and listen for thirty seconds. If you cannot hear his/her music, consider taking a course in “Imagining through Imagination” at a junior college.

Besides his music, I imagine that from time to time he also has good things to say. Sometimes people send the ONE-ARM FIDDLER things to help cheer him/her. (See if you can tell the difference between what the Fiddler says and what others have said.)

“The road to success is always under construction.”

When a sixth-grader was asked what is the first thing to do when kissing a girl said, “At my age all of the girls are taller than I am, so I ask her to sit down.”

A man was teaching his wife how to hunt deer. Thinking he had told her everything, he put her on a deer-stand and went to his. When he heard a shot he returned to see her deer. He heard a man saying, “Lady, you can have the deer, I just want my saddle off of it.”

“There is only one way UP!”

Little boy: “I hate girls. But if I ever quit hating girls, that blond over there is the first one I am going to quit hating.”

Keep listening for the music of a ONE-ARM FIDDLER and life will become better and simpler. Once you hear that music, your ‘everything’ will become easier!
On June 13: “Humor in Ancient Biblical Times: An imaginary interview with “Tung-in-Cheek,” the Ancient Chinese Biblical Scholar.”