The Comedy of Taking Life Too Seriously

You ever look back at an old problem and think, “Wow, that version of me really thought the world was ending?” Like that time you spent an entire night overthinking a text, rewriting it twenty times, sending it, and then refreshing the chat like it was a stock market ticker.

Now, years later, you can’t even remember what the conversation was about. Or the time you were convinced your college grades would define your future, only to realize the person who barely passed accounting is now running their own business and you can’t remember where your mark sheet even is.

Or maybe it was the “big fight” with a friend that had you rehearsing comebacks in the shower for weeks, only for the two of you to eventually laugh about how dramatic you were.

It’s ridiculous how serious everything feels in the moment. But give it a few years (or even a few months) and the same events that once made you panic become your favorite stories to tell at dinner. What once made you cry now makes you laugh. It makes you wonder, if we’re destined to laugh about it later, maybe we can start laughing a little sooner.

Every Crisis Has an Expiry Date (and Becomes a Story Later)

There’s this strange thing about time – it doesn’t change what happened, but it changes how we see it.

Think about your “worst day ever” from five or ten years ago. The one that made you swear life was out to get you. Maybe you were fired, dumped, embarrassed, or broke. You thought you’d never recover. And yet here you are – alive, wiser, possibly sipping coffee, and able to tell that story like a stand-up comic.

I think, time doesn’t just heal — it edits. It trims the emotional chaos, adds a bit of irony, and leaves you with a surprisingly funny story. The pain fades, the absurdity stays.

That’s the beautiful cruelty of it, the moment feels serious only because we’re living it in real time. Give it a little distance, and you start seeing the humor in how dramatic we humans can be.

The Universe Has a Dark Sense of Humor

Sometimes I think the universe is secretly running a long-form comedy show and we’re all just characters learning our lines on the spot. Ever noticed how life has impeccable timing?

Lose your keys? They were in your hand the whole time.
Missed your bus? That’s the day your ex happens to drive by.
Spend weeks preparing for a presentation? The projector dies five minutes in.

There’s an unmistakable irony in how life plays out. The more we try to control the script, the funnier it gets. Maybe the universe isn’t that cruel. Maybe it’s just trying to make us laugh, and here we are – keep missing the joke.

The Ego Is a Terrible Comedian

The reason we take things so seriously is because our ego thinks everything is about us. It whispers, “Everyone’s watching you. Everyone’s judging.” That awkward thing you said in a meeting? You think everyone remembers, they don’t. They were too busy worrying about their own awkward moments. Your “big failure”? In someone else’s story, you were just a background character walking by with coffee.

The day you realize that not everyone is watching you – you’re free. You can start living a little lighter, talking a little bolder, and laughing a lot sooner. The ego hates it, but your peace of mind loves it.

When You Can Laugh at It, You’ve Already Won

People often mistake humor for denial, but it’s actually awareness in disguise. Laughing at something painful doesn’t mean you’re denying it. It means you’ve stepped far enough back to see the bigger picture.

That’s why the wisest people are often the funniest. They’ve seen enough absurdity to realize that life rarely goes according to plan, and instead of resisting it, they learned to dance.

The “Five-Year Rule” That Saves Sanity

Here’s a simple trick I try to remember: whenever something feels too heavy, I ask myself, “Will this still matter in five years?”

If the answer is no, I remind myself that I’m probably inside a temporary storm that feels infinite only because I’m standing in the middle of it. And if the answer is yes, then I know this is something to face calmly, not dramatically — because serious things need clarity, not chaos.

It’s strange how simply pausing to ask this question can shrink a problem down to its real size. It turns out, most of what we call “crises” are just exaggerated moments of fear. In five years, we’ll call them “character development.”

Make Humor a Habit

People think some are “born funny.” I don’t buy that. Humor is a habit, its a way of noticing life’s odd details instead of reacting to them. It’s not about cracking jokes; it’s about seeing irony in the everyday.
A year ago, I wrote a piece about how humor can be your sixth sense, where I discussed how your sense of humor can makes you stand out in thr crowd. It is like an additional skill that you acquire naturally, genetically, or even perhaps forcefully.

I highly recommend you to read this too: Your Sixth Sense of Humor

So, what I’m saying is that you can actually train yourself to find humor in chaos. Next time you spill coffee, miss a flight, or embarrass yourself, try narrating it like a stand-up comedian in your head. (“So there I was, trying to look professional, with latte art all over my shirt…”)

Laughter shifts your perspective. It turns problems into anecdotes and mistakes into wisdom. It’s the most affordable therapy out there.

Life’s Punchlines Always Arrive Late

The best punchlines in life rarely come on time. Sometimes it takes months or years before you get the joke. The heartbreak that once shattered you now makes you grateful for the lessons it carried. The rejection that stung later turns out to be a redirection to something far better. The mistakes that once made you cringe become the very things that give your story flavor and depth.

I find it funny, that the things we most wanted to avoid are often the things that built us. Life, in its odd sense of humor, doesn’t give you what you want; it gives you what you’ll laugh about later.

Maybe the secret isn’t to stop taking life seriously, but to start taking its comedy more seriously. Everything you’re panicking about today, or at this particular point in time, is probably just another setup for a future story that begins with, “You won’t believe what happened…”

So laugh a little sooner. Find the absurd in the chaos. Treat your problems like characters in a sitcom you’re starring in – not villains out to get you. Because the truth is, no one gets out of this life with all the answers, but those who learn to laugh along the way tend to enjoy the ride a lot more.

Now there is the song I wrote
I hope you learned it note for note, like good little children
Don’t worry
Be happy
Now listen to what I said, in your life expect some trouble
But when you worry, you make it double
But don’t worry
Be happy, be happy now

~ “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” – Bobby McFerrin

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