Forum Overview :: Qix++ :: Re: Also, do you remember when you asked if you had ever BEEN funny?

[quote name="MM"][quote]And it's entirely possible it's a coping mechanism since I've never had friends in person and maybe I'm an acquired taste. There are people who love that canned fish stuff they make in the Norse Countries that stinks so bad they have to wash it in ammonia to bring the smell down and I can't remember what it was. Something like haggis only worse than sheep intestine. (I'm NOT being funny here.) My sister says I'm the only one who finds my jokes funny. I've asked for your help; if you can give me pointers on what I'm doing wrong maybe I can learn. This isn't JC so I can use quotes, so like Jules in <i>Pulp Fiction</i>, "I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying <i>real hard</i>." Realize, if I have years of being unfunny, as you claim, it's going to take time to change. And if people can give serious, constructive criticism I can change.[/quote] Comedy is aggression. [youtube id=bV7noZbKi2A] Comedy is aggression! One of the most salient points in Robert A. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" comes when the author insertion character visits the protagonist's psychic utopia commune. The author insertion character realizes while everyone is playful and sexually open, absolutely nobody is laughing. There is nothing wrong with this perfect world they've created for themselves, so there is no need for the release of laughter. Every comedian has a problem. Comedy comes from darkness and cynicism. Comedy comes from a broken world. Every funny man making people laugh with his puns, underneath it all he's not thinking, "If I make these people laugh with my clever wordplay, they'll like me more." No, he's thinking, "What the fuck is wrong with this clusterfuck of a language, English?!!" and that's why people laugh. They say the equation of comedy is tragedy + time (or distance). Louis CK is a comedian's comedian in part because he creates a world of such darkness. Some of the episodes of his show "Louie" lack a clear story arc or a punchline to let the audience know the awfulness is finished and now they can find release in laughter. The scene where he's humiliated on a date by a teenage bully is brutal, and there's no punchline to let you off the hook. You can squirm in your chair suffering through the scene, or you can just start laughing at the awfulness without the reassurance that it's all going to be wrapped up with a neat little bow. It's a kind of spiritually cleansing to let go and laugh at the bully sketch. Laughter transforms people. If you attempt to make people laugh, not because you share their despair and bewilderment at the state of the world, but rather because you want to manipulate a result out of them, they will feel violated. That is why trite humor elicits groans of disgust. Nobody likes being violated and your presence becomes hateful when you do that to them. Is there darkness in your life? If not, don't try comedy.[/quote]