Making Scary Things Funny.

When I was a kid, I used to be- like so many other kids my age, a huge monster movie freak, absolutely adored the classics. The original Frankenstein, the wolfman, the mummy, The Creature from the black lagoon and of course my main man Dracula.. The only problem with me and my favorite monster movies- being a kid after all, was sometimes- well no, every time that I watched them I got the living shit scared right out of me. The good news was that I usually watched them on Friday and Saturday nights so the next day I didn’t have to go to school. Only thing was, I usually got so scared I didn’t get to sleep until early the next morning. The monsters were going to come and eat my brain, I just knew it. Mom was getting fed up with it and had almost on a couple of occasions decided to pull the plug on my weekend monster movie marathons, that is until I pleaded and begged. And groveled too I might add.
“Please Ma No!! I promise I’ll close my eyes when the scary part comes on! Or I’ll hide behind the couch or something.”
Well she eventually agreed to not take my monster movies from me, based solely on the promise that I wouldn’t allow them to scare the wits out of me.

So therein was the problem, how do I make monsters NOT scary? I consulted my step father immediately. And he gave me an ingenious idea,
“When the scary part comes on son, just picture the monster in his underwear. People in their underwear are ALWAYS funny. ”
Monsters wear underwear? When did this happen? Frankenstein wearing bloomers? Dracula in Granny panties? Did I fail to mention that my step father was a demented, warped S.O.B? But I had to admit, the idea was intriguing so I decided to try it for myself. The very next Friday night there I was sitting right back in front of the television, waiting with baited breath, Popcorn and soda pop at the ready- then the announcement: “Tonight’s feature presentation on Creature Features.. Frankenstein Versus the Brain Munchers.. Ooooooo.. A classic! (no.. don’t get your panties in a wad.. That wasn’t the real title.) I gotta admit, I wasn’t sure how I would react to seeing Frankie in his long johns but the image was kinda funny. I eventually got over the bad dreams that monster movies gave me, but not by picturing Frankenstein in his underwear, I discovered that you can get over a lot of different fears by simply facing them and injecting the situation with a bit of humor. If you make something seem funny to you, then you more than likely will soon realize that the truly funny thing is that you were ever afraid of it in the first place.