My Family’s Funniest Physical Comedy Moments

It started when I was REALLY young. Perhaps at age four or five years old. I fell out of bed and hurt my shoulder. I’m not sure how that even happened and I don’t recall how painful it actually was.

What I do remember is my dad playing some Three Stooges movies for me while he kept me up in the middle of the night to be sure I didn’t have a concussion, before they could take me to the doctor in the morning. The Stooges were SO FUNNY. This was before we even had a VCR, still in the late 70s. He somehow had a reel-to-reel setup from what I remember and we watched it together on a screen.

Hence my love for physical comedy was born. Granted, The Three Stooges were pretty extreme as far as comedic violence, not unlike the Popeye or Tom & Jerry cartoons we were starting to fall in love with. Physical comedy has been a presence in my life for a long time now.

I think back to some of the greats, my favorite actors who excelled at physical comedy. Whether it was making goofy faces, being clumsy, or using comedic violence, I’ve always had an appreciation for those who could make me laugh with their actions in addition to their funny words.

Some of my favorites include Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and Eddie Murphy. Their stand-up acts were incredible. The expressions on their faces, their movements, dancing, it was all comedy gold.

Two actors in particular really stood out to me for their physical comedy acting. Michael Richards as Kramer on the hit show Seinfeld has probably made the biggest impression on me in one single role. He was the funniest part of that entire series, in my opinion.

However, the king of physical comedy for me will always be Jim Carrey. I saw Jim on In Living Color way back in the late 80s. His characters in those skits, most notably Fire Marshall Bill, were so damn funny. Check out this clip below.

Then came his earlier movie roles in such hits as Ace Ventura, The Mask, Liar Liar, Me, Myself, and Irene, and The Grinch. I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing his lead roles in any of those, with his comedic movements and his crazy faces. The man is a legend as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve enjoyed mimicking a few of these amazing actors in some of their best-known comedy scenes. I’ve enjoyed performing physical comedy many times in front of friends and family.

I recall being out to dinner with friends once and our waiter dropped the check at the table. I stole a scene from Michael Richards as Kramer in Seinfeld, and when I opened the receipt book to look, I jumped out of my seat, bugged my eyes out, and almost fell out of the booth.

That was a big hit with everyone at the table. My then-wife laughed and it became a thing, every time we’d go out to eat. Kramer was my homie. I had to do his acting justice and give it my best attempt.

In the time that I’ve been with my Bride, I’ve tried my damndest to make her laugh any chance I could. We’ve had a number of funny family moments relating to physical comedy. I’ll share a few of them with y’all.

The Kitchen Table Incident

One time Mai and I were eating dinner alone at the kitchen table The funny thing is, we almost always eat dinner sitting in bed, watching TV, and trying to dissuade Libby Mooch from begging so damn much. For whatever reason, we were sitting at the kitchen table, just the two of us.

I recall looking at one of our laptops together. Perhaps we were shopping for something online or just watching some funny videos. Suddenly, one of us knocked over a drink on the table. We both quickly reached for the knocked-over glass, worried about getting the laptop wet.

The sound of our two heads bonking together like two coconuts was hilarious. It kind of fucking hurt, I’m not going to lie. But as soon as we cracked noggins and saw that the laptop was safe from our klutzy spill, we laughed our asses off. It was so damn funny.

The Skittles Incident

One day we were riding in the car with the kids. My Bride’s 2000 Honda Accord. The one that comes in the darker, shiny metallic green, a standard Asian-issue vehicle that has lasted over 22 years and is still being driven by our son in college. Honda knows how to make a solid, long-lasting vehicle, for certain.

We must have been at a stop light, or hell, maybe we were still moving. Mai was driving and eating Skittles and poured about 1/3 of the bag into her cup-like hand, reaching over to offer them to me.

It took me exactly 0.73 seconds to think about and execute my next move. I smacked the bottom of her outstretched hand with enough force to cause it to rain Skittles all over our Honda. The kids looked up as if to say, “What the shit was that?” Mai just burst out laughing. BAHAHA!

I’ve been with people in the past who would have been angry as hell that I’d done that. Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke. I knew she’d laugh about it, and I was right. That’s just our brand of humor. It was my pleasure to clean them all up once we arrived home. It was so worth it.

Tacos To Go

The third example of family physical comedy happened the most recently. In fact, these three stories are chronological. We had just arrived back home from a road trip to Northern Idaho. We were checking out Idaho State University a year before our son would attend.

It was a fun family trip with other fun stops in addition to the university. We had a great time but were exhausted by the end of the trip like most people usually are. We arrived in town a bit famished and decided to grab dinner at Taco Bell on the way home.

After finally sitting down to eat, we mowed the food down. The best part about Taco Bell is the amount of food you receive for not that much money. We ordered a lot and finished it all off, other than one lone taco.

Kazden held it up and asked if anyone else wanted it before he finished the job. Avery walked by him at that exact moment and pulled my Skittles move from a couple of years prior. She whacked that taco into the air and it crashed to the table, with the hard shell, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese flying everywhere.

We all laughed so hard at that, especially Kazden. Avery claimed that she didn’t actually mean for it to fly that high in the air and explode onto the table. She figured he might drop it, but the kid packs a punch. She’s left-handed and Italian, like Rocky Balboa. I guess it makes sense.

A Scary Thud

The last family incident I’ll discuss happened with my in-laws over at our house. My Bride’s mother was cooking and making a big, lavish Vietnamese dinner for all of us. She was in her element, making food and fussing over everything. She’s probably her happiest when she’s feeling important and cooking for an entire household.

She walked by me as I was taking a drink from a large water bottle that was almost full. She snapped the tongs she was using toward me and laughed, “I’m gonna get your cuckoo!” which I guess is Vietnamese slang for “penis”. I’d been told this before, so I knew what she meant.

I retorted loudly, “You’re gonna need bigger tongs than THAT, Lady!” My cocky Italian reply was met with a room full of laughter. That was pretty funny, I thought. But once the laughter died down, I went in for the kill.

I held my water bottle up fairly high, which nobody noticed. I dropped the almost-full large bottle to the carpet, which made a giant THUD. Everyone whipped around to look at me.

“Oh, sorry. My bad. It slipped.” I said as I made a motion of zipping up my pants. I brought the house down with that one, after the previous dick-joke just seconds before. You might say that I came in like a wrecking ball. &:^)