Pop quiz, potluck, and other perilous phrases.

Tinkle.

That’s what an AI search spit out when I asked it to produce the funniest words in the English language. Booty, booby, gonzo, and bumfuzzle made the list, too.

I’ve been thinking about words that make me laugh, words like dweeb and pantsuit, both of which appeared in the dictionary for the first time in the year in which I was born.

As friendship among nations becomes more perilous, a little communal humor might help. Hate and greed have gotten us in a pickle.

Tinkle is the word my mother usually used to describe going to the bathroom. As a little boy, I’d get it confused with the word twinkle, which is what stars did.

I thought I had something in common with stars, and even as a kid, I thought both words were funny, happy words. Urination is a funny word, too, which is the other word Mom used for pee.

Superfluity is funny. My dad said it when he was too full to take another helping of dinner. “Thanks, but no,” he’d say. “More would be a superfluity.” I thought he made up the word, and I was proud of Dad’s originality. Not everybody invents funny words. Long after he died, Aunt Alice popped that bubble; family elders had been using that word long before Dad.

Kazoo is funny. So are kudzu and Kalamazoo, which is located on Hwy. 131 halfway between Grand Rapids and my friends Scott and Donna’s house in St. Joseph.

Training bra, litter box, and dog sweater make me laugh. And there are a bunch of words that we tested in the junior high school lunchroom that I still think are hilarious. These exceptionally immature potty words still make me snicker. Snot, armpit, and crotch fit that category. Naming one of our friends Jock Strap during those tender years was a stroke of comic genius.

I said the words “I feel your pain” to my wife when she was in labor with one of our children. I was being ironic because, of course, I couldn’t begin to imagine her pain much less feel her pain. This was not the moment for irony.

The overused words closure and objectivity are funny mainly because what they describe don’t exist. Henri Nouwin said time doesn’t heal all wounds, it deepens them. That’s as close as we get to closure. And because you always and only stand in your own pair of shoes, objectivity doesn’t exist — unless you are God.

The words pop quiz are as terrifying as they are funny. The words root canal make me think about Miami; dentists don’t make me laugh but Miami does. The words false start crack me up. And during baseball games, I love it when the announcer talks about bunts, balks, and sacrifice flies.

There are a bunch of religious words that crack me up, including committee, homiletics, fellowship, and tithing. Potluck is another.

The other word that Mom used for going to the bathroom was grunt. This referred to defecation, number-two, poop. If I wasn’t feeling well, she’d say, “Maybe you need to grunt.” This puts me in stitches now, though as a kid it was as common a word as drool, drizzle, and doozy. When life upsets me nowadays, taking a grunt usually makes things at least a little better.

Words have changed. Share the word zoom with your great grandparents. They think you’re talking about a ride in a convertible. The way we use once common words like, text, swipe, tweet, and viral sounds like science fiction. You might as well be Chewbacca speaking Shyriiwook when you talk about needing to reboot your device.

AARP reports that 60words were officially added into the English dictionary in 2025. I’ll let you look up air jail, bed rotting, delulu, lewk, and skibidi.

Egghead, brouhaha, and discombobulate are among the funniest words in the English language, says my AI search.

Minor surgery is a comical tag-team of words. I ask my friends who are scheduled for surgery if they know the definition of minor surgery. They look at me like I’ve had a brain infarction (not a funny word). I tell them minor surgery is any surgery performed on somebody else. I say this as a means of coaxing a giggle from them before they go under the knife. Laughter heals, and sharing a joke can be an expression of friendship and love.

The word love is the funniest word of all.

We love our new car, we love apple pie, and we love Grandma. Does that word describe how we feel about all three? I think it is one of the words we use the most and understand the least.

Love is one of those words we grow into, and I’m in favor of using it extravagantly. I’m trying with only moderate success to live that tricky word.

“If love is the answer,” said Lily Tomlin, “could you please rephrase the question?”

There are a million questions. In its own way, love answers them all.

A lot of words are nonsensical. Malarky. Rigmarole. Balderdash. Twaddle. Pure drivel.

Not love.