Comedy and how misery loves company

Busy day - not much time for writing (this feels like a trend) so I figured I'd read the blogs - I'm liking Alligators in a Helicopter. He's one of those bastards that's managed to come up with a catchy title interesting enough to make you go have a peek, and then he's able to write/entertain well enough to keep you coming back.

So, the last installment (cassette tapes) is a great read and reminds me about comedy. Not all of it, just one aspect of it really. Comedy is very often about what we have in common that makes us laugh.

I was reading a TV episode by a fellow writer and they had a situation that was pretty damn funny. I go through it all the time at home. I thought this was a singular event that I was blessed with experiencing, but nope, seems like there's more folks out there that just can't eat off their own plate. Whatever you have is better. Doesn't matter if there's a duplicate a plate away - perhaps without your saliva on it - not as good. I don't understand it, but there it is - another person is just like my wife - pilferer of food from other plates.

So I'm reading Scott's blog and how stunned he is by the Yoko tracks on John Lennon's Double Fantasy tape/record/cd. Oh my, that was so funny. I picked that bad boy up when it was originally released and felt the same way - stunned - amazed - traumatized at the inclusion of Yoko's tracks. They were the anti-lennon songs. Where he had melody - she had none - where he had smooth lyrical phrases she had gibberish sung by animals being pushed through a meat grinder. They're god-awful. I can't imagine anybody listening to them and actually thinking, "hey, that's pretty good." It's the most blatant example of "my husband got me this gig" that I've ever seen.

And to see somebody else go through that exact pain and come out feeling the same way - well, I laughed my ass off.

So next time you're thinking about being funny (in writing) think about things that folks might have in common - that are funny - and see if they don't pay off.

Oh, as a rule, you should setup this comedy as well. Scott does a great job of setting this up naturally in the blog. He listens to cassettes, he gets a good one from a yard sale, he has great expectations for this one (since it has 5 singles on it), etc. then - the payoff - the Yoko crescendo! Kudos, Scott (should you ever read this).