I have this thing with people that are funny at parties. I don’t trust them.

When you’re funny you can hide a lot. Being funny gives people the illusion that they know and like you. What they really like is how you make them feel. Laughing feels good.

I learned to be funny at parties at a very young age. There is a part of it that’s just natural talent. This is why “comedian” is a real job title that people have and get paid for (if they’re lucky). The rest, for me, is necessity. I needed to be funny. I needed to hide. I needed to be liked. I needed to make people feel good. Laughing feels good.

I have always felt like I have a lot to hide. I spent a good chunk of my life as a cripplingly-depressed, emotionally abused, sexually confused, secret genius with terrible ADD who hates her body. In addition to that I grew up thinking that it was my job to make everyone else happy and never show any real emotions. My job was to make everyone comfortable and feel good. Laughing feels good.

If you think about it, everyone knows someone who is funny at parties. You may not know them well, but you like having them around in social situations, if only to take the heat off of you. Often these people get the most attention in a crowd, but sometimes they get the least attention outside of one.

This is what happens when you get inside the head of someone who is funny at parties. Sometimes they’re a secret introvert.