Using Absurdity To Get Laughs With Funny T-Shirts
The act of laughing is just as natural as snow falling on the mountains or a stream bubbling down its path to the ocean. Laughter is key for humans to vent out anxiety and refresh the mind. It is a natural social response that indicates commonality amongst a group and can show relief at the passing of danger. When you mix the absurd into the pot, the whole equation suddenly gets really weird. The laughter that absurdity induces is often laced with confusion, and I absolutely love it. This is why the funny t-shirts I wear are always extremely off-kilter and absurd.
Wearing absurd, funny t-shirts is almost like playing a prank on everyone you encounter. You know that whatever inane joke you’re telling with your shirt is going to be difficult to grasp, but that’s okay. Once the observer understands the absurd nature of the humor, the shared laughter is genuine. It is a bonding experience to overcome the small challenge of absurdity. It is an absolute truth that laughter is the best way to join two people together in a common cause, even if that common cause is something so small as an absurd joke.
This blind faith in the observer’s ability to find your funny t-shirts humorous is why I dig the obtuse and the absurd. Even if someone doesn’t laugh outright, I find that puzzled expression to be just as good as an outright laugh. The great thing about absurdist humor is that it makes the recipient’s brain change gears very suddenly. The result is just as fun for the joke giver as the one getting it. Telling someone the sky is purple, just to see them surge up with the response, “No it is not!” is gratifying to me.
There was a French playwright in the 1950′s named Eugene Ionesco who was labeled an author in the Theatre of the Absurd. His plays were insane gibberish that spoke on social issues and the lack of communication amongst people in everyday speech. Considered a great playwright by the theatre community, he did some great work that is still performed to this day. With plays full of such insanity that you can’t help but laugh in confusion, I wonder what Ionesco would have worn absurd, funny t-shirts today just like I do.
The art of the absurd is something beautiful to me, and all of my funny t-shirts border on the insane. You can reach a lot of people using the absurd to make your point. It jars the normal mind from its housing and lets it run free to do as it pleases, processing information in ways that are different than normal. What is normal, anyway? I suppose this is a question that absurdity tries to not answer, but to make null and void. Just like the chicken that crosses the road…absurdity loves eggs too.
Take a look at these funny t-shirts at cool t-shirts for lots of great information.
