![\"The](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/leehopkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image.png?resize=700%2C529&ssl=1\")
I concur with Pagliacci that humour is a disguise worn by the depressed. But I don\u2019t agree with that for all instances across all of one\u2019s life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have suffered at the hands of Clinical Depression before US psychiatrists came up with the much hipper-sounding conditions Bipolar Disorders I and II. I have spent many hours with my heart hidden on my sleeve telling jokes to school friends and hoping that they will therefore like me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But at the ripe age of 64, having come to realise who I am at 62 (a \u2018creative\u2019 and therefore utterly unsuited to the office life I kept failing at), and falling in love with someone new at 63, I am now very happy indeed. My psychiatrist keeps me healthy, sane, and stable courtesy of some first-rate medicines. No more depression, just the rare moments of glumness when something doesn\u2019t go quite as I wanted it to. That mood lasts but hours compared to the decades of pain and suicidality of my life in my pre-teens to my late 50s. Sure, my creativity is stunted by the medicines, but I will take stability and no more crushing depressions or suicidality over blinding creativity anyday! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, when I tell a joke among friends, or share a funny meme on Facebook, I do it with a joyous heart. I take great pleasure in laughing along with my friends, both old and new, for the sheer enjoyment of it, not because of a desire to ingratiate myself with them and manipulate them to like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But certainly, Pagliacci was right. Mostly. Until the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A man goes to a doctor. \u201cDoctor, I\u2019m depressed,\u201d the man says; life is harsh, unforgiving, cruel. The doctor lights up. The treatment, after all, is simple. \u201cThe great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight,\u201d the doctor says, \u201cGo and see him! That should sort you out.\u201d The man bursts into tears. \u201cBut doctor,\u201d he says, \u201cI\u00a0am<\/em>\u00a0Pagliacci.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working out is like a drug to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t do drugs.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Person 1: \u201cI say, I say, I say, what is the secret to successful comedy?\u201d Person 2: \u201cI don\u2019t know, what IS the secret to successful co-\u201c Person 1, interrupting Person 2: \u201cTiming\u201d Comedy, as with most of life, is a subjective thing. I love the tv show \u2018Lucifer\u2019, yet some staunch Southern American Christians…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,78,77],"ppma_author":[306],"class_list":["post-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-writing","tag-comedy","tag-joke","tag-pagliacci"],"yoast_head":"\n
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