Jennifer writes a wicked funny Substack called Humor in the Middle. Her subtle jokes are unexpected then BAM, you’re laughing out loud. Here is my recent favorite essay. Does she know she could have a lucrative side business show selling these bumperstickers, coffee mugs, etc??
Please give a warm welcome and a round of emoji applause to Jennifer… 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻
What were your life events that led you to realize, “Hey, I’m pretty funny.”
Three primary things.
First, when I was young and would ask my mom if I was pretty, she would say, “Pretty funny.”
Second, I enjoyed acting in plays and making my friends laugh in high school and college.
Lastly, I signed up for an improv comedy class when I was 23 and got asked to join a Sketch comedy group. We were called The Smart Alex. We’d perform at Rose’s Turn in the West Village in NYC. (It’s sadly closed now.) Around the same time I tried standup on a bet and liked it.
Did your parents encourage your funny side?
I remember laughing, in particular with my dad, but I don’t think being funny was encouraged for girls in the 80s. I was focused on following the rules and doing well in school to make my parents and teachers happy.
How did you nurture your funny side?
I have always liked to make my friends laugh, but I think my reliance on humor came out of unhappy experiences, like being forced to be on a swim team summer after summer even though I was a terrible swimmer who got chronic ear infections from getting water in my ears. I had to wear custom-made ear plugs, so I could barely hear the race start gun, but it didn’t matter anyway, because I tended to swim in the “unqualified” lane.
Or as others called it: The Stain Lane.
I also got funnier in high school, because, well, high school.
Do you think you may have inherited your funny bone?
My paternal grandfather loved to make people laugh. I remember one of the last times I saw him he tapped his finger on an alumni magazine he’d received from his university. There was a photo of a gorilla on the front. He said, “I think I had class with that guy.”
He’d say funny things with a completely straight face and then only smile after he saw that he made you laugh. I loved that. I kept the cover of that magazine.
If you’re in a partnership, is he or she funny? Was/Is humor a requirement?
My husband is a big fan of puns and plays on words that sometimes don’t quite work. I used to attribute this to the fact that English is his second language, but recently he told me he was the same way growing up in France. I prefer when he makes me laugh with self-deprecating or observational humor.
For me, having a hilarious partner was not a requirement, but being with someone who likes to laugh and is willing to laugh at themselves is essential.
I don’t trust anyone who can’t laugh at themselves!
If you have a funny partner is there ever a joke competition or do you play well off each other?
In my family, we occasionally debate who is the funniest. But I always point out I’m the only one whose humor makes money! My older daughter is very funny, so I encourage her to try improv or sketch comedy, but she hasn’t yet.
One funny game my husband and I like to play to make each other laugh, either in public or while watching TV, is that we pretend the people on screen or around us are people we know. For example, a man in a commercial for medication with terrible possible side effects is on and I say, “I hope [an old friend of ours from 15 years ago] is going to be okay.”
Because we now share a long history, we can crack each other up with old and random references that no one else in the world would get.
Can you tell me about a time when you turned something painful into something humorous?
I half-heartedly rushed the sororities in college, not knowing I was an introvert who didn’t love group activities. It was the absolute worst. I felt like I was in a herd of cattle. After I inevitably did not join a sorority, I wrote a humorous account of the whole experience. How I was forced to make small talk (something I hate) while drinking diet peach Snapple out of a plastic cup as sweat rolled down my back because I’d worn a blazer like I was headed to a job interview. I wish I still had it. My college roommate asked for it recently because she wanted to share it with her daughter who’s now in college.
I think you could also argue that my whole year of doing stand-up was in response to the overwhelm of adjusting to adult life post college in Manhattan.
Can you tell me about a time when you couldn’t muster anything funny and how it affected you?
At heart, I’m a frustrated idealist who is too sensitive for my own good. So I can definitely fall into negative spells. My solution is usually just to step away from technology and either take a walk with my dogs, cook for my family, or read a book.
But I’m also the kind of person who starts to laugh when too many things go wrong at once. Then it becomes comical to me. When things are truly bad, I always find reasons to laugh. It might be my secret power.
Can you describe the type of humor you possess?
In writing short fiction I’d say observational humor is often found at the root of my ideas. Sometimes it’s because these things are funny to me, and sometimes it’s because these things annoy me. From there I see where it goes when I add a “what if?”
I like to write humor people can relate to. This is especially true in the parenting humor I’ve written in Frazzled on Medium.
I’m also big on writing from the POV of a funny character, even if the character is an inanimate object, like the Facebook profile photo who wants to break up with her owner or an entire cast made up of emojis.
If you have kids, when was the first time you made them laugh?
The first time I made them laugh was probably just by making a funny face or playing peek-a-boo. But I used to use different voices or accents to get them to do things. Super Nanny and Dora’s Abuela were somehow always more persuasive than I was.
Did your sense of humor change in the last 5 years? If so, how?
As I’ve gotten older I realize how much is out of my control. I appreciate my sense of humor as a tool and a coping mechanism! I also somehow feel like I’m allowed to be funny now. When I did standup in my early 20s I couldn’t figure out my character because I was still figuring out who I was.
Now, there’s a sense of freedom I didn’t have before. In terms of creating comedy, I had really largely set it aside for a couple decades and I am just so grateful and having so much fun being back at it. It feels like a return to self, which is maybe common for women when their kids start to leave home. My oldest is a freshman in college this year and my other daughter is a junior in high school, so I’m not far from an empty nest. Though I dislike that term! How about a successful launching pad instead?
What would be the title of your life right now?
Focusing on the Funny at 50
Who is your role model? If you could say anything to this person, what would it be?
She was not a comedian, but my paternal grandmother still really inspires me. She got a job at The New York Times in the 1940s, but under the condition that she not be married. She chose to marry my grandfather instead, even though his parents warned her he wouldn’t live until the age of 40 due to a heart condition.
They ended up being married for 60 years. On their 60th anniversary I asked her what the secret was to being married for so long.
She said it was to always keep your sense of humor.
I’d been married for just three and a half months at the time, so I would have taken this advice to heart under any circumstances, but she said this from a hospital bed where she’d just been diagnosed with brain cancer. It was not a funny day. So I always try to follow her advice – and never take my opportunity to write and be published — while married — from the comfort of my home – for granted.
Jennifer Haubrich publishes humor and humor advice twice a week in her Substack, Humor in the Middle. Her writing can also be found in various humor publications such as Frazzled, Slackjaw, The Belladonna and Jane Austen’s Wastebasket on Medium. She is currently compiling her parenting humor into a gift book ideal for parents who only have time to read while on the toilet or waiting in a car in the pickup line at school.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Stay for questions and comments— it’s like meeting Jennifer backstage!
Me first—
I love the story about your funny grandpa. Is he still around?
The inside joke with hubby about the commercial actors really having IBS (or whatever) is hilarious. Can I borrow this with my hubster? Hehe.
I love this whole thing but especially this:
“At heart, I’m a frustrated idealist who is too sensitive for my own good. So I can definitely fall into negative spells. My solution is usually just to step away from technology and either take a walk with my dogs, cook for my family, or read a book.
But I’m also the kind of person who starts to laugh when too many things go wrong at once. Then it becomes comical to me. When things are truly bad, I always find reasons to laugh. It might be my secret power.”
Me too me too!
Love the bumper stickers!