When something happens, it’s easy to assume we know the answer to the event. But what if the “obvious answer” isn’t all that obvious? Our assumptions can deceive us, can’t they?
The little bird in my cartoon thinks he knows why his yellow friend is so large. Naturally, he must be eating some killer birdseed! But is the bird’s assumption correct? What if another factor caused the yellow bird to have some hefty prominence?
- What if the yellow bird was an escapee from a science experiment?
- Could the yellow bird have an overactive pituitary gland?
- Maybe he had been on Sesame Street and birds naturally get yellow and large there
- What if he is a she and in this species of bird, the females are larger?
- Perhaps he is simply a different species?
Humor works because a joke or a cartoon sets us up to think in one direction, then the punchline takes us in another. It’s a bit of mental whiplash. Henny Youngman was great at it.
“If at first you don’t succeed…so much for skydiving.”
Henny Youngman
We make assumptions all the time. Could it be we shouldn’t be as certain of our assumptions as we are? Perhaps we need to be humble enough to consider there are other answers to why something is the way it is. It could lead to creativity…and perhaps a breakthrough.
