Follow Shakespeare's Lead - Although Not Always Funny, He Was Fun

You're familiar with the phrase, "there's the rub," meaning "there lies the difficulty"? It's usually used to describe a stumbling block in your path or the central dilemma. But while it's associated with Hamlet, did you know that this phrase was not coined by Shakespeare? I'll finish this thought in a moment...

Things that are funny are almost always fun. But things that are fun are not always funny. There's the rub. Most of us, I've found, confuse fun and funny...to our unfortunate detriment.

It's easy, and dangerous, to forget the distinction between fun and funny; when we focus on funny instead of fun we can quickly get discouraged because trying to be funny puts a lot of pressure on us. Especially when some of us are not naturally funny. Even if we are naturally funny, placing funny before fun is still a mistake because it causes us to prematurely focus on the outcome rather than the process of humor.

You see, funny is a result while fun is a process. Funny is an action, while fun is an attitude. Fun is virtually unrestricted and can be had almost anywhere at anytime, while funny has some very definite limitations. Since you can take an attitude of fun into any situation or circumstance, while being funny is sometimes inappropriate and unwelcome, is there any wonder that I am advocating fun over funny?

Here are three steps you can take right now to forget about being funny and start having fun:

1. Remember Your Fun. What games did you enjoy when you were 5 to 10 years old, when you were having fun naturally. Think of 10 specific examples of games you enjoyed and then ask yourself, "How many of them involved active imagination and physical movement?" I'll bet most of the games on your list involved both.



2. Plan Your Fun. Take the list you made in Step One and update each game to a version you might be able to play currently. Can you think of an adult version of hide and seek, tag, or playing with dolls? How about trying to avoid direct eye contact with your boss when she's looking for someone to work overtime this weekend, playing "phone tag," or trying on clothes at the mall? But those are my ideas -- see what you come up with.



3. Have Your Fun. Give yourself permission to have more fun and back it up with a commitment to have 15 minutes of fun each day. Why do you need a commitment to have fun? Because you are bucking years of incorrect indoctrination that fun should be reserved for recreation. You want the excellence which, research shows, fun creates so well.

The lesson is simple: you want the full benefit of humor's powerful natural medicine, so don't confuse fun with funny. They are definitely not the same thing. While it might be funny to give an elephant an enema, for example, I'm sure it's not fun! And now you know exactly how to lose your focus on being funny and get started having fun.

Shakespeare, by the way, didn't originate the phrase "there's the rub," he only made it famous. In Hamlet, Hamlet considers death as a way to end life's struggles and finally rest easily. But then he also realizes there would be a catch.

"To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause."

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1


Don't fall for the trap of trying to be funny instead of having fun. You'll put less pressure on yourself and you'll also feel the full measure of humor's incredibly powerful natural medicine.

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory