Ges on the Box; Is watching a squirrel burying its nuts funny?

ALTHOUGH I’m fat and should, therefore, be jolly, there aren’t actually many things that make me laugh out loud. Some people might call me miserable, I prefer to think I’m discerning.

Unlike Him Indoors. He has what can only be called an overdeveloped sense of humour and will find something amusing in most situations.

So, while I fume at the automatic scanning till in Asda as it insists I need to put something in my bag when I’ve already done so, he’s standing there enjoying every second of my irritation.

He loves laughing: at penguins, at cracker jokes, my toes, flashing snowmen earrings, sheep, “League Of Gentlemen”, children, Spike Milligan, the joy of being alive, “The Simpsons”, silly ties, Tigger and Winnie the Pooh, dogs, charades, “Spongebob Squarepants”, cartoons in general, other people laughing . . . the list is endless, though never nasty.

He’s fun to be around (most of the time) although I don’t entirely trust his sense of what is funny. “Come and look,” he’ll roar with laughter while I’m asleep. So I get up, struggle into my dressing gown, stagger bleary-eyed into the sitting room and peer out of the window to see what’s so funny.

It’s invariably something daft like a squirrel burying peanuts (he feeds them). It was amusing the first half a dozen nuts. I smiled broadly. But he’s been laughing at them for the past 18 months . . . well, much longer I suspect, but 18 months to my certain knowledge. And, if he isn’t laughing, he’s grinning ear-to-ear. That’s how I recall our first meeting. A smile that lit up my day. Bless.

But, as I say, I don’t entirely trust his funny barometer. He’s always yelling for me to “come and see this programme, it’s hysterical”. And I’m sure Spongebob or “The League Of Gentlemen” ARE funny. But the humour doesn’t do it for me.

So, when he discovered another programme that I simply “had” to watch, I wasn’t overly excited. In fact, I missed the first couple of episodes, so eager was I to see what all the fuss was about.

Fortunately, Him Indoors had recorded them. Not for me, he watches them over and over again — in fact, he’s asked Santa for a DVD of the last series too.

So, if you want a laugh (if it makes me laugh, it’ll make anyone laugh) tune into “Outnumbered!”, it’s on at 10 tonight (BBC2). I won’t spoil it for you, but take one love-sick 12-year-old boy, an overactive eight-year-old brother (and a double espresso with six sugars) a precocious sister who’s six, add a granddad with a touch of Altzeimer’s, and an eight-hour delay in a Spanish airport.

Oh, and no script — the child actors improvise leading their TV “parents” down many a garden path.

It’s priceless.