It’s been said that the best way to keep a marriage going is to keep your sense of humor, and some of the greatest humorists of our time also had some of the best marriages. Today especially it is important to save our marriages through he use of humor, as there is very little to find funny with the world at large outside our homes.
Here we celebrate some of the greats, and learn a little bit about their lives and their marriages, may we all aspire to have the kind of marriages that they had:
Erma Bombeck was the first writer who struck me as funny when she wrote about the comical happenings in her marriage. “The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank” was filled with rich anecdotes for the suburban couple. ” A Marriage Made in Heaven, or Too tired for an Affair” is another of her books which make light of the plights and situations often experienced by both newlyweds and long time married couples. I especially like the part where she writes about having only the things that mattered in common with her husband bill, one being that they both only chewed a half stick of gum, saving the other half for later. Then she made a mental note to let his hair grow out. I loved it.
Joan and Rodney Dangerfield were married for over twenty years. While
Rodney’s marriage jokes were a hit, Joan always took it all in fun and the real marriage was nothing like the jokes Rodney told onstage. (” I haven’t spoken to my wife in years; I didn’t want to interrupt her.”) Their marriage was one of mutual laughter and respect, despite Hollywood gossip regarding the difference in their ages, as Joan was half Rodney’s age.
Gene wilder stayed by the bedside of wife and fellow comedian Gilda Radnor
until the breast cancer she had been diagnosed with eventually took her. A fun loving couple whose comedic routines kept us laughing though a war and the subsequent lost morale of the US, Gilda’s characters on Saturday Night Live and Gene’s movies will at least live on and give us something to remember this great couple by.
There are many American humorists whose marriages inspired their writings and held their sanity in check. Pick up any one of Erma Bombeck’s books and read it together, or check out any of the DVD’s available through historychannel.com on marriage and humor. You’ll be sure to find that behind any of the happy, great humor writers of our time is a happy marriage that was able to withstand hardships and keep the sense of humor needed to transcend even the darkest times. We need that now in our marriages more than ever, especially today when most humor is considered bathroom humor and making fun of your spouse is the way to win friends and influence people.
Today many people who think that they are funny are really shaming their marriages-we need to remember that humor is the fabric that holds marriages together.