You know the YouTube hit “David After Dentist,” the video a dad took of his young son after a dental procedure involving some type of anesthetic. You laughed at it, right? Don’t lie. As much as you questioned why Dad just so happened to have a video camera at that moment, you still laughed. “Is this real life?” David slurs under the influence. “Why is this happening to me? Is this going to be FOREVER?” Aaand David passes out.

Compare that to real life on campus: a golf instructor makes a joke about shafts and gets silence. An English professor makes a funny comment and gets a few smothered snickers, the kind where someone knows it’s funny but doesn’t care enough to commit to an audible chuckle. Students are scared to use humor in their papers, even if the professor says it’s acceptable, nay, encouraged!

Compare that to virtual life: I would put money on the fact that about half of all texts I get or send contain some cue to laughter. The simple “haha.” The childish “teehee.” The explosive “BWAHAHA!” Sometimes the text-laughs are applicable to the situation. Most of the time they are just a filler to make the text long enough to be worth sending.

Something’s askew with our sense of humor, readers. We “lol”-vomit all over the place in texts and Facebook chat, yet we stare dumbly at a professor the entire class period, barely breathing, let alone summoning enough energy to let out a giggle or two. We spend hours on YouTube and other sites watching videos about double rainbows and strategically placed genitalia in boxes, but we become zombies in the classroom. But I don’t see a sign next to the Gustavus Honor Code plaque in every classroom that says “No Fun Allowed.”

I consider my family to be pretty funny people, which is why a sense of humor is at the top of my list of desirable personality traits. A sense of humor shows you’re tuned into the situation, you’re paying attention to those around you. You know laughter feels good, and you enjoy making others feel good and making yourself feel good. You get a feel for what people might think is funny, but you’re outgoing enough to be OK with a failing joke. It’s testing some waters but freely jumping in some puddles.

I don’t understand, then, why people don’t laugh, especially in the classroom settings. Laughing is acceptable. There are no repercussions for laughing. There’s no embarrassing stigma against it, unlike other bodily noises. It shows you’re paying attention. It keeps you awake and engaged. Most importantly, professors like you more when you laugh at their jokes. If there’s a way to get on a professor’s good side besides actually showing up to class and doing the work, it’s to laugh. Even if they use some dated reference revealing just how far out of the loop they are, I dare you to cross that age gap, building a bridge of laughter, the strongest form of a bridge in the world. (Suck it, suspension bridges.)

To conclude, even though David was doped-up on anesthesia, his questions yield many truths: Yes, David, life happens to us all. Yes, it is real, and yes, it will seem like forever.

I say: What better way to get through it than with a sense of humor?