We don’t see many oxen around any more but images from times past are part of the present even if they don’t seem to make much sense any more.  Humor is a funny thing – (I just made a joke and didn’t deliberately think it out before I wrote it).  For instance – “It depends on whose bull is gored”.  We don’t see many bulls around any more but the image tells us that if it is your bull that is gored you will not like it much.  If it is the other guy’s bull that is gored, then it could be funny and you laugh at his expense.

Bulls in the rodeo ring and in “bull-fighting” rings in Hispanic countries try to gore riders and those guys with picks and swords who love to make them bleed and lose strength so the Toreador can dispatch the bull looking stalwart and brave.  It depends on who is looking and from where one stands.  I think there is not much fun in poking at bulls even if they use clowns to try to distract the bull from goring its tormentor who it is kicking around on the ground.

In this election period there is much to think about but the most fun is at the expense of the chief characters – the candidates for your vote and mine.  One of the chief activities during this period is the picking and slicing away at the other guy and, depending on whose bull is being gored, you have a lot of fun at his expense.

I don’t think that elections are the proper subject for humor – although there are plenty of gaffs and mistakes and stumbles that can get you to giggle a bit.  This election might be described as being conducted by the amount of humor extracted by the candidates and reported by professional funny people.  I don’t stay up late and have never seen Sarah Palin skewered by her look-alike, Tina Fey.  There is another intentional or accidental funny thing – the last name of the lady who is parodying the one who would be the first woman President if – GOD FORBID – the Republicans win, McCain dies and we get a “fey” result that won’t be funny at all for the sake of the future of this country.  That would be whimsical when viewed by some but disastrous when evaluated by others.

Humor is a funny things but I wish the candidates would all settle down and not set themselves up for being the objects that are being made fun of because they are right up there in the spotlight and we cannot but help to see them in the light shown by the professionals who get paid to lay them low.  That is not funny.