  Comedy
This week: The Truth can be Funny! Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Now What?  
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| It didn't need to be said. But it was. And that gave a whole new twist to the situation. |
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I was playing hide and seek with Laya. She hid in the corner of a room, in plain sight. I couldn't help finding her.
She cried. I explained the un-hidden nature of her hiding place. She cried harder "If you hadn't looked for me where I was hiding you wouldn't have found me!" I was enlightened.
Dear Readers,
Given above is a friend's Facebook status, about a game of hide and seek with his little daughter. I wonder if you chuckled when you read it.
I certainly did chuckle. Then the writer in me started to wonder - why? Why is it funny? It's the truth, isn't it? If you don't look for someone where they are hiding, you won't find them. That's something that doesn't need to be said.
Which is precisely what makes it funny.
It didn't need to be said, but it was.
So, your funny bone is tickled, at first, with surprise at what was said. And then, you pause a bit and start thinking of the possibilities. What if he could see his daughter hiding there, but he didn't look there. You start to picture the scene. Giggle. Chuckle. Snort.
Take the line from one of Gerald Durrell's Corfu Chronicles, Gerald's mother talking to his brother: "Larry dear, you can't invite people you don't know to stay." Darn right, you can't. But now that it's been stated that way ... it gets you thinking ... what if you did? Imagination. Giggle, chuckle, snort.
Instead of leaving it unsaid, you're saying it, and that's what is unleashing the reader's imagination. When it wasn't said, nobody questioned it, nobody thought of the opposite scenario. It was just taken for granted. When said, it brings up the what if possibilities - and those need be funny, simply because it's a well-established truth which is being dissed.
Here's an extract from 'The Macbeth Murder Mystery' by James Thurber (JT is James Thurber, AL is American Lady.)
AL: Macduff discovers Duncan's body. Then he comes running downstairs and shouts “Confusion has broke open the Lord’s anointed temple” and “Sacrilegious murder has made his masterpiece” and on and on like that. All that stuff was rehearsed. You wouldn’t say a lot of stuff like that offhand, would you – if you’d found a body?
(fixing JT with a glittering eye)
JT: I—
AL: You’re right! You wouldn’t! Unless you’d practiced it in advance. “My God, there’s a body in here!” is what an innocent man would say.
Ha ha ha ha ... you wouldn't say a lot of stuff like that if you'd found a body!
And here's a bit from The Moral Dimension
(FROM “YES MINISTER” BY JONATHAN LYNN AND ANTONY JAY)
“The journalists need it, minister, to justify their huge expenses for a futile non-event.”
I wasn’t sure that I liked my trade mission to Qumran being described as a futile non-event.
“I mean, a great triumph for you, Minister, which is why it is a futile non-event for the press.”
He’s right about that. Journalists hate reporting success.
Yup. They sure do hate reporting success ...
On that happy note,
Thanks for listening,
Sonali |
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My last Comedy NL was a while ago! "Comedy Newsletter (December 21, 2010)"
Thanks LJPC - the tortoise  for this feedback!
A Laughter Club! Who would have thought about that? It's funny how empathic people are. Laughter IS infectious as are tears, but laughter is certainly more pleasurable! Thanks for the fun newsletter, Sonali.  -- Laura |
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Comedy: April 03, 2013 Issue [#5594]
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