Intro-8. HUMOR

One time Mel Brooks, writer of the Broadway show The Producers, was asked how he as a Jew can write a song like “Spring Time for Hitler?” He answered that for years we’ve tried to develop sympathy for the Holocaust victims and be sensitive to the evils that Hitler created. And this certainly is important. But realize that Hitler himself was insensitive to attacks, arguments or threats. There is only one thing that would really make a fool of Hitler and put him in his place: that is humor. Making him the butt of jokes and portraying him as a clown or buffoon would be totally degrading. It sends the message “We don’t take you seriously.” Hitler hated and feared this.
Similarly with cancer, a sense of humor is always appropriate and can attack those cancer blues.
For example, Marilyn, when she found out about her condition, decided there would be no baseball caps for her. Some kind of wild wig with equal crazy clothes would be just fine.
Another situation involves a patient who told her brother about her condition. The brother, who had just had a heart attack several weeks earlier, said he was angry about this because this was going to take all attention away from him. The cancer patient replied, “Sorry, cancer outweighs heart disease any day of the week!"

Finally, a staff member at M. D. Anderson one time, on her way to an exam room, passed by a wating room. She hollered out to a barium drinker "So what delicious flavor do we have today." The patient replied "Today we’re having a Martini Barium." The passer-by replied, "Well what the hell, it's five o'clock somewhere in the world right now, isn’t it!"