[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

Laugh. What was your biggest belly laugh of the year?

I laugh a lot. My family is made up of a lot of very funny people, which I’m convinced is a large part of the reason why they happen to be tough survivors. Life is better when you can laugh at things. Sometimes the only thing you’ve got left is your laughter, and that can (as the cartoon my kid happens to be watching has rather fortuitously just trumpeted) “change the story and save the day.”

[Also, it helps when you're very easily amused and will go to any length for a joke. Witness this photo. I started peeling one of these gigantor oranges one night, saw a funny face in it, hunted down my googly-eye stash, stuck them on, photographed the whole thing, then removed the eyes and ate the orange.]

That said, the people in my life tend to be absurdly hilarious. I’m surrounded by wit, making it patently impossible to name one big belly laugh of the year. So, here are a few of the one-liners that made me laugh, snort and/or cry with laughter. Most of these are Tweets I’ve favorited.  On non-Tweets, names and details have been omitted both for privacy and, where applicable, out of necessity.

• “I had to have my lower legs cut off so Tom Cruise matched me when we body doubled.”
• “You know, ever since you fiendishly seduced Deepak into deleting his retweet of me, my skies are always grayish.”
• “Bruno made $30.4 million this weekend. It’s the biggest opening for a gay mockumentary since Top Gun.”
• “Yes, I use the other bathroom because I won’t use the toilet with the lever that snaps back all defiantly at when flushed. I mean fuck that.”
• “It’s not really a business. It’s like those doll head and shoulders we had as kids. You could practice styling hair and make-up. That’s what [company name] is.”
• “I’m working on my arts.” [The Lad, protesting an interruption]
• “You’d better exhale before you blow out your other ovary!”