By Anti-Cancer Club

Cancer Sucks.  Let’s just be clear about that.

But it also inspires some awful great humor.  And we’re on a bit of a laugh-in-the-face-of-cancer frame of mind this month.  In #CancerBookClub we’re reading/watching the award winning book/film by Steve Mazan.  Later this year, we’re watching episodes from The Big C.  Because every now and then, we all need a break.

Here are some great takes on humor and cancer. 

Who: Comedian Tig Notaro on her own cancer diagnosis:

Who: Laura Linney playing Cathy Jamison a high school teacher with stage 4 melanoma on the Big C:

From: Cancer Is Not Funny…But Laughter is the Best Medicine  

“A doctor calls a patient to report on a bone scan and biopsy. The patient is out so the doctor leaves amessage to call. As usual, no medical details are left.

After a day of telephone tag, the doctor and the patient finally get together on the phone. Says the doctor in a matter of fact voice, “I have good news and bad news. Which will you have first?”

“The good news.” “OK. The reports say that your cancer has metastasized all over and that you have 48 hours to live.”

“You call that good news? It must be the bad news. What could possibly be worse?”

“Well, the bad news is that I tried to call you yesterday.””

Blog: New York Times Well

Blog Post: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Cancer Clinic

Blogger:  Dana Jennings

“There was the time last winter when a colleague gave me the get-well gift of a book. Being a wiseguy (maybe I should blame it on the hormone therapy), I cracked, “Oh, great, it’s probably ‘1,000 Places to See Before You Die.’” My colleague gasped, then blushed as she handed me a copy of “1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.”

We both laughed (and I apologized for wising off). But she only laughed after I laughed first. In my laughter, I’ve been able to nudge my family and friends into laughing, into letting them thaw their tight and frozen faces. And that’s important, too, because when you’re seriously ill, you’re not the only one who needs to heal.”