I was inspired to write this post with the passing of Gene Wilder, however, this post is dedicated to those who make us laugh in this fucked up and twisted world of ours.

Laughter and glee; my two favorite emotions (is laughter an emotion? Ah fuck you). It’s not easy to make someone laugh, especially “pee-your-pants” laugh, yet there are those who dedicate their lives in the pursuit of laughter and happiness. These people are special, these people craft jokes and stories for the sole purpose to make people happier. To make people forget all their worries and woes for just a brief moment. To laugh is to live for these people.

Comedians thrive on the obscene and the mundane. Thrive off of the odd and the weird of the world. Contorting what could be a tragic story into something that is hilarious and jovial.

This is why I think that a passing of a comedian is so sad. The comedian holds a special and intimate place in your heart, no one could make you laugh like that, no one could make you bust a gut laughing in that way, and in an instant they are gone. All of the lightheartedness (is that a word? Again fuck you) that they possessed and claimed as their own is sucked out of this world. I compare it to a star going out in the Universe, all the light that they produced in this dark cold place is snuffed out.

What is beautiful, however, is that they remain; all the laughs they conjured live on in their material. Yes, the loss stings like hell. I can remember the day that Robin Williams passed away, I felt empty and hollow. But to remedy this I turned on one of his sets and began to laugh again.

The passing of a comedian may sting, and may hurt like a knife in the gut that they busted with their jokes. But I’m going to tell you the same thing that my dad told me when Robin Williams died: “Don’t be sad, he wouldn’t want us to be sad. He would want us to laugh.”

And laugh we shall.

My hat is off to all of those that dedicate their lives to make this world laugh,

Mitchell Timmerman