Gay Humor: When Is Too Much Just Right?

I hadn’t seen my friend Roger in years.  I heard he moved back to Memphis to live with his mom.

But that turned out to be a lie.

After Roger had been gone for about a year and half, a mutual friend pulled me aside.  He looked both ways to make sure no one would hear.  He whispered, “There’s something I have to tell you.  Roger’s in Memphis but he isn’t with his Mom.  He’s in jail.”

After the shock, I got angry.  Why had I been lied to?  I’d known Roger for fifteen years.  We were tennis buddies from way back.  Even won the city championships once.

I got the details and then my friend asked me not to tell anyone.  “Roger’s a proud southerner,” he said.  “Let’s not embarrass him.  If anybody asks he left Atlanta to take care of his sick Mom.”

So whenever anyone asked, “Hey, whatever happened to Roger?” I’d wheel out his sick mother as the explanation.

Lying forced me to tell more lies as the questions piled on.  “What’s his mother got?  What’s he doing for a living?  Is he still playing tennis?”

Keeping secrets is exhausting.  Especially other people’s secrets.  But I did it for six months.

Then I got a call from one of our tennis buddies.  Roger was coming home from prison and they were planning a party.  When the invitation came I knew it would be the print version of the lie I kept telling.

But when I pulled the card out of the envelope I gasped.

There, in my hand, was an orange  “Get Out of Jail Free” card.

“Oh, no they didn’t,” I laughed out loud, “They did NOT send this…”

But they did.  And when I asked one of the hosts why, he said, “Everyone was going to find out at some point so why not now?  Besides, we weren’t going to let a little thing like jail time get in the way of a good joke.”

Roger got the invitation while he was still in prison.  He told me he’d never laughed so hard in his life.  At the party they carried out the crowning touch:  A cake that said, “Spring has Sprung and So Has Roger.”

The party celebrated Roger’s release from jail but we ended up celebrating our release from having to lie about it.

The invitation to the party didn’t just deliver a good line; it delivered us from the burden of carrying a secret.  It should have been an “EVERYBODY Gets Out of Jail Free” card.

Now when somebody asks me where Roger’s been, I tell them, “Jail.”  And then I tell them how wonderful it is to have him back.

Whoever said, “The truth shall set you free” was wrong.  The truth shall set up a good joke.  And if you’ve got a sense of humor, THEN it will set you free.