what’s the thing you laugh about that actually hurt?
you've told this story before, and people laugh. you laugh too. but underneath the telling, there's something that still stings, something you wrapped in humour so you wouldn't have to feel it fully.
every day there's one live question, the same for everyone. answer it anonymously, see what other people said. it's all gone in seven days.
answer today's question →write down the story you've made funny. the anecdote, the self-deprecating bit, the thing you tell at dinners. now write it again, but without the humour. strip out the punchline and the timing and just describe what happened. notice what changes when the laughter is removed. write about when you first started telling it as a joke. was it a conscious decision, or did it happen naturally? ask yourself whether the humour is protecting you from something. sometimes laughter is a way of processing. sometimes it's a way of hiding. write about which one this is.
- write the story without the funny version, just what happened and how it felt at the time.
- think about who you first told this story to as a joke, and what you needed from them in that moment.
- ask yourself what would happen if someone responded with concern instead of laughter.
this is for anyone who has gotten so good at making painful things funny that they've forgotten the pain was real.