What makes something funny?

We were watching some family videos from 1994 that my brother had just transferred from video to DVD. Some of them were of my grandfather during his last Christmas when his Alzheimer's was really getting bad, but even then you could see his sense of humor shining through.

My father always said that my mother's family had no sense of humor, but that really isn't true. My father's family's humor was incessant teasing and belittling of people, which was supposed to be very funny and I have a touch of that myself and can have a very cutting wit. My mother's family, on the other hand did have a sense of humor that was very different than my father's family, but just as valid. They relied more on plays on words and puns for their humor. I think this is where I learned my love of words. My grandparents would do the crossword puzzle from the paper every day and we would take turns reading the clues and trying to figure it out. We also played Scrabble and my grandfather would recite poetry that he had memorized in grade school.

Watching that video last night really brought all that back. At one point my grandfather said in the video as they were driving over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, "Look at that house over there! Wouldn't it be great to live there? Maybe just you and one other person. You would have a great view any time you wanted, plenty of fresh air....and you could commit suicide any time you wanted! Just step off the cliff and it would all be over!" My dad and my brother's girlfriend both said, oh I can see he had Alzheimer's! He doesn't make sense! But to me I could tell that he was being funny. It sounded exactly like something I would come up with that I would say and people would just scratch their heads and think I am nuts. I have learned not to say these things that are hilarious to me, but not other people most of the time, or only to people who know me well because otherwise they just don't get it at all. Or maybe I just have had Alzheimer's all my life and I didn't know it???