I was reminiscing with a few friends from my hometown the other day, and we began rehashing memories when I visited one of them at their university down south. It was a much larger school than Lehigh, so even my home friend who was showing me around was unfamiliar with most people we passed by on her campus. When we went out that night, we decided to go off just the two of us. We decided as a funny prank to people around us that I would make up a new identity each time I met a different person. Although it was just a joke to give me and my friend comedic relief, it was creative how many different background stories, names, even accents we could put together to some people we would never see again. I would be a British student who went to Harvard named Ally or Taylor from the University of Alabama who attempted to pull off a southern accent. Our imaginations were running wild that night, and it made us have a great time. Small things between friends, even some of the smallest jokes, actually do take a lot of creativity. I feel that way when watching a funny show like The Office, wondering how the writers for the episode came up with the idea. Or watching a stand-up comedy performance, and seeing the comedian mock a stereotype. Humor is centered around an imaginative, creative mind.
I love this post because humor truly is something that needs creativity. I am a big fan of stand up comedy, like Sebastian Maniscalco or Bo Burnham, and one word that I use to describe them is creative (of course along with funny). What you and your friend did was using your imagination to create a story. The story comes from your mind and no one story will be the same from someone else’s because you created it. I also can relate because I always talk about how we go to a school where I can walk around campus and see either a new face or 10 familiar faces, and I thought that was a good comment about the fact that at a bigger school you can sometimes just change to be someone else around different people.
-Katie