Laughing It Off

     There's nothing funny about cancer, yet some people seem to find the humor in it.  Tig Notaro is a stand up comic who had breast cancer.  Nine months ago, she went out on stage and started her show with, "Hi.  Good evening.  I have cancer."  From there, it went on to, "It's gonna be okay ...  It might not be okay ..."  Having cancer wasn't her only bad news.  Shortly after her diagnosis, Ms. Notaro's mother died.  Then Notaro's her partner left her.  All of this misery went into Ms. Notaro's routine.  http://shine.yahoo.com/secrets-to-your-success-20120120/secrets-success-tig-notaro-164600226.html
     Kate Matthews http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-matthews/breast-cancer-awareness_b_2204593.html#slide=1816178 was also treated for breast cancer.  She has doodled a book full of cartoons chronicling her her treatment.  Here's one that cracks me up:

   
     There are bunches of humorous breast cancer T-shirts.  It takes eggs to wear some of these:

  

 

     The gals with breast cancer aren't having all the fun.  Check out this blurb for Rejuvenuts, a prostate cancer "treatment":

 
     Confronting cancer with belly laughs has become serious business.  The principle here is called "distraction humor."  Patch Adams might be the most well known person to employ laughter as medicine.  He founded the Geshundheit! Institute in 1971.  Treatment at the Institute incorporates naturopathy, acupuncture, and homeopathy with traditional medicine.  They also throw in "humanitarian clowning" because a big red nose, huge shoes, and an ooga horn can't hurt. Norman Cousins didn't have cancer, but he used Marx Brothers movies to lift his spirits as he battled heart disease and arthritis.  There are books written on the subject of humor and healing. Amy Boesky authored Fighting Cancer with Humor, and Robby Lee Feldman wrote The Last Laugh: Fighting Cancer with Wit and Humor.    
     The thing I noticed about all this joking around is that the one liners can't be delivered by a healthy person.  The quips have to come from people who really have cancer.  That's the way it has to be.  To them, God bless and God cure.