Why Humor Matters: Creativity, Strengths, and the Power of Play

Bill Watterson is a hero of mine. Bill is, was, and will always be the author of Calvin & Hobbes. His comic strip ran from 1985 to 1995 and was one of the most popular strips of all time. Last weekend my “Special Lady Friend” and I went to the University of Oregon in Eugene to see a museum display of some original Calvin and Hobbes prints supplemented by narrative from both Bill and a U of O professor. It was such a moving experience as I have loved the stories about Calvin and his pet tiger for decades now.

Bill Watterson’s comic explored almost every imaginable topic from politics to parenting, the boredom of our education system, the depths of friendship and even the complications of our romantic feelings – looking at you Susie Derkins.  

As someone who is wired for humor and loves to create humor in small and larger forms this quote from gallery exhibit by Bill really resonated:

“If I’ve learned one thing from being a cartoonist, it’s how important playing is to creativity and happiness.” – Bill Watterson

I love creating new things and having places, spaces and audiences to share those creations. Not everything I put on stage is humorous – sometimes as required by decorum and sometimes I’m not as funny as I think I am – but they process of creating and sharing humor (and content in general) are joys for me. But why humor?

Calvin: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humour? When you think about it, it’s weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it’s funny. Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us?

Hobbes: I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.

Calvin: (after a long pause) I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.

TANGENT: Through this process of developing and using tools to help others understand themselves I’ve also been finding out more about myself. When I align what matters to me and what I’m good at I find more and more synergy and joy in the work I do as I’ve been able to actively use my talents, skills and strengths. 

I want to give you a few insights and tools to play with here today.

Early pioneers in positive psychology like Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson developed an interesting assessment on Character Strengths. The VIA Institute on Character devised one of my favorite tools in working with people and this free tool provides a ranking of 24 Character Strengths and most importantly tools to heighten your top 5 predominant strengths, called “signature strengths.” And yes, there are tools to elevate other lesser strengths but I suggest staying focused on what’s great about you.

Many of you have used the Gallup tool called Clifton Strengths. Character Strengths differ from Clifton Strengths in that Gallup’s tool assesses how to enhance workplace productivity, performance and success while VIA Character Strengths identifies “who you are at your best” and when in use lead to more fulfillment, wellbeing and meaning. Certainly, there is overlap with the two strengths assessments and we’ll explore that a bit below.

Back to the VIA Institute’s Character Strengths for now. What’s so fascinating to me about positive psychology is the depth and breadth of data available to researchers from research on happiness around the world. From this research comes an interesting finding which has identified 5 of these 24 Character Strengths which are most associated with the highest levels of happiness, they are:

Gratitude. Love. Hope. Zest. Curiosity.

Interestingly, my top 5 are below with bolded strengths being in the group associated with the highest levels of happiness:

Humor. Gratitude. Kindness. Social Intelligence. Hope. 

TANGENT: Back to our friend Bill Watterson. For anyone who is a creator there are often limitations. For comedians it might be the amount of time you have on stage, choosing PG over R-rated as your content style, even how long a joke is relevant before it’s dated. For example, I saw a comedian recently still doing jokes about Covid. Pretty stale. 

Constraints come in many forms, sometimes surprising. A musician I knew from Hawaii really loved leaving Hawaii to tour because he could play heavier rock music that wasn’t as appreciated back home. 

For Bill Watterson, the constraints of putting his art into the structurally limited space of a strip was something he pushed back on and eventually changed. But what Bill Watterson did within the constraints of the space and format limitations of a comic strip was still first class with hilarious conversations, movement that felt alive and gorgeous watercolors.  This quote really sums up what can be done within limitations: 

“Nothing sets you free creatively like having a set of limitations to explore.” Terry Gilliam.  

Terry was co-Director of Monty Pythons’ The Holy Grail, and Director of Time Bandits. Who was also involved in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 12 Monkeys  and other surreal films.

Bill Watterson went on to say: “My job is essentially to come up with 365 ideas a year. If you ever want to find out just how uninteresting you really are, get a job where the quality and frequency of your thoughts determine your livelihood. I’ve found that the only way I can keep writing every day, year after year, is to let me mind wander in to new territories. To do that, I’ve had to cultivate a kind of mental playfulness.”

I like the phrase “mental playfulness” and when those moments strike I’ll remember to lean in. 

FULL-CIRCLE: Clifton Strengths ranks Woo, Activation, Futuristic, Communication and Connectedness as my top strengths. Through my businesses Focus on the 40 and Humore.us Productions has and will continue to be a lot of work. But still fun. And this work I’ve chosen is better aligned with my strengths than what I’ve chosen in the past. As I understand more about myself I get to put my best food forward each day and live a happier and more fulfilling life.

“Everybody seeks happiness! Not me, though! That’s the difference between me and the rest of the world. Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” – Calvin

There are and will be hard times in your life and in between the moments of euphoria and joy you’ll have to overcome challenges, obstacles and setbacks.

“You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help.” – Calvin

So pack your lucky underpants and unpack your character strengths in the meantime. How do your Character Strengths rank? Take 15 minutes and find out your top 5 and compare.