by Matt Bird

Created on: May 12, 2009   Last Updated: May 13, 2009

I could choose so many animals to fit this niche. Penguins, perhaps, or ostriches. Both are pretty funny in their own way. Dogs, cats, parrots, chameleons... just about every animal out there is funny in its own way.

Yet at the end of the day I have to pin the medal on the chest of one species, and they may not appreciate what I have to say about them: humans. Yes, we are the funniest animals on the planet.

I could go the obvious route and say that we're aware of humor. Most animals, while capable of enjoying something, don't necessarily have the distinct mental capacity to find something funny - I think our cousins the apes are the closest ones, and being no biologist or animal behaviorist I can't say for sure. We're the only species to develop comedians, people who are paid to make the rest of us laugh. And I'd say that the average comedy sketch, while not necessarily funnier than some other animals, does stretch out longer.

But that's not the primary reason I find humans so hilarious. No, what I find funny is what most of us take so seriously, especially when compared to other animals.

Just think about it. Every day most people get up, get dressed and go to work. The getting dressed part is the first gaff; how many other species bother with clothes? Do ANY of them? We've developed a sense of shame about our bodies that I doubt many other species share. They don't care, yet we do. And while I can understand covering up in colder climates, quite frankly, we weren't really meant for cold climates in the first place. So spreading out to them was silly from the get-go.

More than that, though, is the whole working thing. We work to get paid so we can eat, sure, but I think most people get to the point where they want money to enjoy various social amenities. Going out to movies, having nice dinners with people we fancy, buying products that have no practical value beyond making ourselves look good. Would you ever see a chimp paying ten bucks for a bottle of facial cleanser? Not likely, 'cause they just don't care.

And the whole monetary system is so very silly. Other animals just take what they want. They don't barter with one another for goods. And while I can understand that a 'civilized' society the likes of ours would want a means of exchange so that everybody gets a fair shake of things, we take it too far. We worship - quite literally! - little bits of paper, as they've become such a thing of power that they can make or break a man's life. And while it's true that money does represent something else of value in most cases - gold, in most cases, I think - this other commodity is usually no more practical than the paper which represents it.

We look down on other animals with our so-called 'superior' brains and consider their actions hilarious. But I think if any of them suddenly developed a brand of intelligence akin to our own, we'd become the laughingstock of the world - and, quite frankly, we'd deserve every bit of derision we got.

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