Oooooh...its vanishified

First of all can I just say that my poem Alone made it onto page 3 of the most popular poems on Deviant Art in the past 24 hours!! How unbelievably cool is that thank you so much to everyone who took a look at it and added it to their favourites! Mwah!

And secondly.......*DRUM ROLL* drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrum

Don't you open that Trap Door!
You're a fool if you dare!
Stay away from that Trap Door!
Cos there's something down there!

Now, our household is hardly what you would call conventional, not in the least in that the number one priority on a Wednesday morning can be to clean up the unholiest of unholy messes that is the result of the Houdini moggi managing to open a ruck sack and eat 2 Sainsburys granola squares.

No, there are a number of bizarre references to various scientific theories, films, cartoons, pc games etc that are bantered around in the guise of adult conversation. And needless to say, hearing an intellectually superior 6ft man mumbling under his breath in the kitchen in a London accent “ooooh, oooh its vanishified ooooh”, whilst probably a fairly acceptable form of discourse within these four walls, had me rolling around in stitches for a good five minutes.

This line is from the episode “Ghoulies” of the infamous and quite frankly fantastic animation “The Trap Door”. Created whilst I was a wee nipper (1984-1986) by animators Terry Brain and Charlie Mills, Trap Door ran for 2 series and a total of 40 episodes. There are four (maybe five) main characters whose antics you follow throughout, which tend to include one or more of a number of nasty and hilarious monsters that come up from the trap door.

Berk, is a lovable blue creature, who tends to have the best lines. He loves to cook, is the epitome of the grumpy yet adorable old man (but made from blue clay) that lives down the road, and is the long suffering servant of the Thing Upstairs. His trademark sayings are “Oh Gloobits” and “Sniff that!” (both of which I was internally muttering after hearing the story of doom regarding the moggie and the granola squares). Dear Berk often pokes around the trap door despite warnings from his friends, and is generally the cause of the ensuing mayhem as he tends to forget to close the trap door or indeed in pounced upon as soon as he opens it in the first place.

Moanie Boni is my favourite character! This disembodied skull lives in a hole in the wall, and moans. A lot. His favourite pastime is complaining that he is bored, telling Berk of for opening the trap door, and sleeping. My kinda skull. In fact I am sure my husband to be will no doubt state that occasionally I can do a very good impression of boni, particularly if I have a cold. Boni’s shining moment is when he acquires the body of a horse and starts charging around making goat noises in the episode “Nasty Stuff”. Classic!

Next we have Drutt. Drutt is a little spider, who doesn’t talk as such, but has certain unique ways of getting Berks attention. This normally involves lots of jumping around (which is impressive in itself as his legs are too the side of his body, not underneath him) and making high pitched squeaking noises. He is Berk’s pet, and manages to get himself into just as much trouble as the others. I have just read that in one episode Drutt has babies.....why am I not aware of this fact? And pink babies as well! I shall have to consult the oracle and get back to you. Either way, Drutt rocks.

I have to mention Rogg as I plan to reincarnate into him. Rogg is a huge pink thing, a friendly monster that lives down the trap door and pops up on random occasions for a play. He isn’t very intelligent, his favourite line of mine being “I like Berk, he’s my friend” after sending him flying out of the top storey window and Berk screaming obscenities at him from the ground. Rogg becomes the firm friend of all the characters eventually, although Berk often refers to him as ‘the stupid pink thing’.

And there we have it ladies and gents, my little mention of the wondrous animated cartoon that is the trap door. Now, there is a slightly more serious note as to why I have introduced you good readers to this frankly rather silly topic. It is also a little ironic I suppose, maybe even hypocritical, considering the doldrums posts I have written of late. It concerns the importance of laughter.

Dr Paul E McGhee developed what he calls laughter therapy and has spent 22 years conducting research on humour and laughter with focus on how beneficial these tools are to our health. He argues that our sense of humour helps to overcome the immunosuppressive effects of stress by boosting our ability to cope (indirect action) and by directly effecting the effectiveness of our immune system. A number of studies conducted have shown that levels of immunoglobulin A (an antibody with a key role in mucosal immunity – that is, any part of your body with a mucos lining such as nostrils, gastro intestinal tract, etc) are significantly boosted whilst the patient is watching a funny comedy.

Beyond these direct effects though, are the indirect effects that laughter has on one’s ability to cope. One paper in particular caught my eye, as it refers to Dr Frankl, the psychiatrist whose ideas I discussed in a previous post. One direct quote from Frankl’s work ‘Mans Search for Meaning’ goes like this:

“I would never have made it if I could not have laughed. Laughing lifted me momentarily....out of this horrible situation, just enough to make it liveable”.

Frankl was able to use humour to survive the Nazi concentration camps. I’m sorry but this guy is simply unbelievable....

Anyway, star struck eyes over. Humour, however grim and black, can set the spirit free under even the most tragic circumstances (Captain General Coffee, POW, Vietnam). It is argued that those who can access their sense of humour even under the most stressful circumstances are much more resilient and emotionally flexible; they can bend without breaking when times get tough.

I remember quite recently when I received a phone call from a relative, screaming and hollering about the state of his wife in the care home (basically she was asleep) and threats to steal her away out of the home and “take care of her” himself. He was also going to refuse any more medication for her, and insist that she was put on no drugs; an action which would have killed her pretty quickly. He was also very unwilling to accept that the social services would have to be involved should he do this, and also seemed to think that the NHS would simply provide home care for his wife despite the fact that he had rudely refused the proper NHS care that she needed. Needless to say I was sat down with a large vodka and orange and got to railing about the stupidity of said relative with husband to be. Husband to be, out of this fairly tragic and unbelievable potential disaster, began a rendition of the film with Thelma and Louise (I have no idea if this is the correct title). Images of two elderly people in a beat up ford focus, one completely potty and the other with only one functioning leg and the thought processes of a very stupid Nazi general, driving off into the sunset with their whole lives ahead of them, had us both laughing so hard we were in tears.

Now this is very black humour I know, and it really isn’t a very funny situation. But then nor was the Nazi concentration camp. Either way, I ceased panicking about what was likely to happen, and simply waited until the following day to contact my relative and discovered that he had had a go at the care home (who had told him exactly what he needed to hear) and all was well.

So, moral of the story is, no matter how tough things get, if you can laugh about it, you’ll be a lot better off. Whether it be Trap Door or The Two Ronnies, find that which puts a smile on your face, and face the world with renewed vigour and intent.