Put On Your Big Boy Pants

Write the Comedy That Best Suits You

On my trip, I read a comedy book, not my first. They all break down or deconstruct comedy into its parts, which sounds good on paper, but comedy doesn't necessarily work when reduced to formula.

What appeals to me is the following:

1. hyperbole

2. stories, anecdotes, fables

3. self-deprecation

4. "Sermons" on a theme: like the way we want change and don't want change at the same time

5. insecurity

6. slippery slope

7. paranoia

8. absurd scenarious

9. people shooting themselves in the foot with their misguided attempts at self-improvement, safety, or happiness

10. Like the above: people in a rabbit hole of their own making

11. irony list: ironic mishaps and disasters.

TV binoculars, cancer

Doctor who couldn't let go of his furniture

Tippy toes and back surgery

 

Facing the Demons Takes Away Their Power

Or as Spinoza writes, as quoted in Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning:

What does Spinoza say in his Ethics? -’Affectus, qui passio est, desinit esse passio simulatque eius claram et distinctam formamus ideam. Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.

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The guilt was killing me. But seriously . . . 

HBO's American Winter is a great documentary about our insane policies that end up spending more money on people AFTER they become homeless rather than spending less to PREVENT them from becoming homeless. 

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Carpool Kenny Won't Work; Nor Will the Dummy from SkyMall

I doubt this inflatable man will fool highway patrol as you speed down the carpool lane. This dummy reminds me of a manikin you could buy at SkyMall a decade ago. It showed a mustached dummy sitting on a chair in front of a single woman's living room window and the ad made it clear that a woman will no longer be seen as living alone. 

If a woman buys this dummy, she's saying, sadly, that she's given up on finding a real mate and worse the stupid purchase will repel potential candidates.