“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people”-Victor Borge
(Note: This article includes a round-up of favorite Studio C skits from Season 7. You can find more seasons and skits on BYUtv.)
Not long ago a friend said to me “You’ve got a background in psychology, and you have soo many children. You must know something about how to bond with an older child who isn’t a good communicator. How do you reach a child like this?” She looked at me expectantly. Hmmm.....I tried to dig deep. There had to be some Jungian, Pavlovian, or Piaget something I had used somewhere, somehow? But only two words came to mind: “Clean Comedy”.
Shared, good quality laughter is a “super glue” in our family. No matter what stage of communicative education our children are in, it works! First rate humor generates those warm, fuzzy feelings we all love. It is even said that the devil does not have a clean sense of humor, so he flees in it’s presence, taking all strife and temptation (temporarily) with him. I believe that. Good humor feels like a reprieve from trials. Like healthy music, healthy humor can heal.
But don’t take my word for it. Here is some great information from Harvard cardiologist Cynthia Thaik:
The positive powers of humor are often under utilized in families.
There seem to be three reasons for this:
1. A lot of media humor is crude.
Because one of the jobs of a parent is to teach children not to be crude, this kind of humor isn’t generally sought after for bonding.
2. Parents are bored by “children’s” humor.
This is understandable. Children and parents often see the world through different lenses. I love the idea my friend Lisa Valentine Clark used with her Pokemon loving son. She memorized all the facts about just one Pokemon character. Whenever he brought up Pokemon, she would parlay the Pokemon topic du moment into a bonding opportunity by mentioning a salient point re: Charmander. Brilliant. I now call this process “Charmandering”. It has a lot of potential childhood application.
3. Parents don’t know where to find humor that is funny for them but is Also funny for their children.
Enter the clean sketch comedy group Studio C. Think of a smarter, hipper, just as clean version of The Carol Burnett Show. Quietly, over the past seven years, Studio C has been changing the lives of families for good. They were recently featured on Conan O’Brien. Their Scott Stirling skit has over 30 million views alone (oddly, this isn’t one of my favorites. It is often a favorite of children and sports/slapstick fans. Please see below for my personal favorites). They continue to spread the joy of happy, clean fun. I love it!!
There are those that feel they have a Studio C “habit”. There are worse habits to be had.
When I was in high school I watched a lot of people get involved, and sometimes addicted, to a lot of things. The usual menu of “things that could seriously damage your life” were all in the offing then as now. I watched, and I wondered: “Are there any ‘positive habits’ out there?” I discovered that of course there were: reasonable exercise, healthy eating, trying to keep the 10 commandments, lots of service to others, etc.. All of these left you feeling good. No guilt, just joy.
And now I would submit, America, that watching Studio C could be on this list of good habits!!
This said, I have noticed that while Studio C skits are almost universally appealing to older children, pre-teens, and teens, one might need to filter out the ones that are the most humorous for parents too-yielding the greatest bonding and possible “inside joke/quote” potential. That is why I am here for you, friends. Here are my current picks for mutual parent child bonding (from Season 7). So....
If you like the absurd:
Or the equally absurd...
Or if you’ve ever had a crush...(note: the two actors in this bit are actually married in real life!:)
Or you like things that migrate from zany to zanier...
Or you have ever read “Lifestyle Blogs” (Note: there are two more of these “organic vlogs” on youtube-you can search for more hilarity. There is a also a “Martian Blog” series of parodies and a “Bourne” thing. The fun keeps comin’).
This one does lean slightly more in the child, rather than parent-child humor direction, unless you are like my sister Betsy who is the punniest girl I know. So much pun.
“When I saw your face, I thought “snickerdoodle”.” Ha ha!
You may be tired after watching this, but you may also be laughing....
You may cry laughing....
You can take it down a notch here, and still be laughing....
If you have favorites from the upcoming season (Season 8) please send me a note. We will try to feature them in a future article.
Love and laugh on!!:D