Below are a few short notes of humorous incidents in the Life of Joseph Smith:
♦ I was chopping wood [when Joseph Smith rode up on his horse] said he, “good afternoon.” He had a smile on his face and I felt that he was going to say something else. “You are not the young man wh
o sold his wife for a bull-eyed watch the other day are you?” , he asked. I replied, “no Sir,” and he rode on laughing. There was a man who has sold his wife for such a day or two before so I suppose he thought he would have a little fun with me.” – Daniel D. MacArhur
♦ But the sixth of May 1843 the weather being hot [Joseph Smith] called for a glass of water. With a glass in hand said, “I won’t refute a toast, to overthrow of the mobocrats which he did it in language as follows: “here’s wishing they were in the middle of the ocean in a stone canoe, with iron paddles, and a shark swallows the canoe, and the devil swallow the shark, and the devil locked up in the northwest corner of hell, the key is lost, and a blind man is looking for the key” – Edwin Rushton
♦ As Joseph looked over the table he said, “Lord, we thank thee for this Johnny cake, ans asked me to send us something better. Amen.” The cornbread was cut and I received a piece from his hand. Before the bread was eaten,a man came to the door and asked if the Prophet Joseph was at home. Whereupon the visitor said, “I have brought you some flour and a ham.” Joseph arose and took the gift, and blessed the man in the name of the Lord. Turning to his wife, Emma, he said, “I knew the Lord would answer my prayer.” – John L. Smith
♦ On March 18, 1843, Joseph wrote in his journal: “About noon, I lay down on the writing table, with my head on a pile of law books…. ‘I am going to study law, and this is the way I study it; and then fell asleep.'” HC 5:307
♦ “Aunt Clarissa was a very fleshy woman. One day the Prophet came to visit the house and said he believed he weighed as much as Aunt Clarissa, but when they were both weighed she weighed the most. He went into the house and got a piece of bread and butter in each hand, then he got on the scales and said, “come down, come down or make me weigh more than Clarissa” – Caroline S. Callister
♦ Joel Hills Johnson remembered, “The Prophet frequently came to our house, [Remus, Illinois] and sometimes stayed overnight. On one occasion he partook of a Christmas dinner at my father’s and while standing at the head of the table, carved the turkey. Fearing that his clothing might accidentally be soiled, my grandmother Susan Bryant Johnson, tied a long apron on him. He laughed and said it was well, for he did not know what might happen to him. My brother Seth and I were in the room, admiring, in our childish way, him whom we thought the greatest man on earth.” – Susan Martineau