  Comedy
This week: Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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"I had thought — I had been told — that a 'funny' thing is a thing of a goodness. It isn't. Not ever is it funny to the person it happens to. Like that sheriff without his pants. The goodness is in the laughing itself. I grok it is a bravery... and a sharing... against pain and sorrow and defeat."
- Valentine Michael Smith
(Robert Heinlein,
Stranger in a Strange Land) |
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Good morning (or evening, or brillig, or whatever time it is when you read this). Hey, I don't know what time it is, myself. All of a sudden, it's Daylight Saving Time again. Whenever I push my clocks ahead, I always get a disorienting sensation of time dislocation. So I came to work this morning in my bell bottom jeans and leather fringe jacket, telling people to "Peace out, man."
*dodges flying fruit*
Anyway, I'm Robert Waltz and I'm one of your new regular Comedy newsletter editors!
Hey! Get your mouse off that unsubscribe button! 
Being a regular editor not only means that I can now play practical jokes on my fellow editors (*slaps a "Kick Me" sign in the middle of elizm446's back*) but also that I can take over the world! engage in mind games with YOU, the readers!
Many of you know me as a paronomastic purveyor of putrefic puns, but in this issue isn't about puns. Instead, I'm going to discuss the basics of comedy. Comedy 201, as it were. (You all passed the Comedy 101 course, right? So you all have senses of humor, if not taste. Good.)
*Assumes lotus posture on top of convenient mountain*
What is comedy?
*Shifts uncomfortably as mountain peak invades sensitive area*
Like the famous Supreme Court justice, you might not be able to define it, but you know it when you see it. Or maybe you define it as "that which makes me laugh," a definition that begs the question: What makes people laugh?
After years of painstaking meditation (this position hurts), I can only pass on one basic, all-important ingredient of comedy: the bread that's needed for the sandwich; the rice that's required for the take-out Chinese; the car chase scene you need to make it an awesome movie instead of a chick flick:
Surprise.
"Well, duh!" You're probably thinking. "That's no surprise."
Well, sure. But surprise alone isn't enough. It has to be a surprise that, in retrospect, makes perfect sense. If you have a guy walking a dog along a street, and suddenly a UFO appears in front of them, well, that's surprise, but there's nothing funny about it. If, on the other hand, when the UFO goes away, you have the guy say, "Huh. That was weird. But they didn't do anything," to which the dog replies, "You think?" - well, that's at least mildly amusing.
In future newsletters, I hope to delve more deeply into specific types of comedy: jokes, one-liners, parodies, comics, slapstick, practical jokes and, of course, puns*. For now, when you're done looking at all the great Editor's Picks (I love the ambiguity of that grammatical construction), scroll down for a challenge related to next month's newsletter!
*My father always told me that the pun was the lowest form of humor. Sorry, Dad. The fart joke is the lowest form of humor. |
A scattering of different amusing offerings, picked at random from around the site to illustrate many forms of comedy:
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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JOKES
My next newsletter, in April, will feature JOKES. Not one-liners, or the quick Q&A that passes for "riddles" these days, but tell-it-to-your-friends belly-laugh-inducing JOKES.
Example joke:
This guy gets busted for some minor offense and ends up in prison. He's sitting there at lunch the first day, when a few tables away some guy gets up and says, "Thirty-six!" Everyone laughs. Then another guy gets up and says, "Fourteen!" People laugh again, even harder this time.
So the guy turns to the inmate next to him and says, "What's with the numbers?"
"Well," the veteran says, "Most of us have been in here a long time, and we've all heard all the jokes already. So a while back we decided to just give each joke a number, and so when someone wants to tell a joke, they just call out the number."
"Oh," says the new guy. "That sounds about right."
So after a while the guy stands up and says, "Twenty-four!"
Everyone just stares at him. No one laughs. Red-faced, he sits back down. "What happened?" he whispers to the guy next to him. "Why didn't they laugh?"
Guy shrugs. "It must be your delivery."
Your Challenge: Make up a new joke. Like the prisoners in the example above, I've heard them all. And, frankly, I'm no good at making up jokes. I'm fair at telling them - my mind remembers jokes like other people's minds remember to do taxes and walk the dog - but I've never in my life made up a brand-new joke.
Of course, there are some rules:
 Email me the joke (to cathartes02@writing.com). Better yet, make it an item and email it to me with an item link. If you'd also like to provide newsletter feedback or highlight an item, I encourage you to do so - but I'm only going to count jokes I receive, directly or with item link, in my inbox.
This is not the place for racist or sexist jokes, no matter how funny they might be. That includes jokes ragging on white men.
Similar to the above, keep the joke to 13+ or below (18+ if you send it to me as an item link)
You may enter as often as you like. The deadline for entries is, appropriately enough, April 1, 2007.
The best original joke I receive earns its author 5,000 gps! I may award Honorable Mentions, at my sole discretion. Winners will be honored in the April 11 Comedy Newsletter.
Though I think I've heard them all, it's possible I've missed one or two. You might be able to fool me by sending me one you didn't make up that you think I haven't heard. If you do this, I hope you can sleep at night.
LAUGH ON! |
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Comedy: March 14, 2007 Issue [#1600]
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