My take

           It’s an impossible task to define exactly what comedy is. Some people would have you believe comedy is just people saying and doing funny things, and this isn’t necessarily wrong. But, to me, asking what comedy is would be like asking what is a painting, what is theater, or what is the internet. That is why my goal is not to define comedy, but rather to explore it from every angle to figure out what it means to me, to other comics, and to whomever else I feel would be relevant in the discussion of the art of making people laugh.

            Comedy is not something that can be explained from one perspective only. I have played a few different roles within comedy itself, as a column and blog writer, as a stand-up, and as that guy in class that says inappropriate things to get a rise out of the teacher. All of which I think I’ve had a decent amount of success with, which is just a graceful way of saying I think I’m funny.

            I will be offering my two cents on comedy throughout this blog, and I hope to include many different perspectives in the future. But for now, just like every other comic loves to do, I will be talking about myself.

            Comedy is, to me, what makes the world go around. An exaggeration, of course, but I really do think we as humans rely on humor more than we think in our lives. People turn to comedy in a similar way people turn to music. Sometimes people just need to hear something that will make the biggest problems they face seem smaller, sometimes it’s heard in lyrics, sometimes it’s in poetry, and sometimes it’s in jokes.

            It may be unoriginal and, quite honestly, hackish to bring up an event like September 11^th to bring some sort of quasi-noble sincerity to your point, but watch me. After the tragedies of September 11^th, there were questions about what was and was not okay to make fun of. People started using the absurd phrase “the end of irony.” The countries late night comedy shows were shut down as the country mourned. After a few days, The Daily Show went back on the air, and after Jon Stewart delivered a teary eyed monologue about the state of the country, we returned to laughter as part of the healing process.

            Personally, the single most painful experience of my life was being left for someone else by my longtime girlfriend. I won’t get into those gory details, but I assure you, the ordeal was dramatic to the point of pathetic. Roughly a week after I got dumped I wrote my first joke, and it just so happened to be about burning my ex-girlfriend’s house down. It may seem morbid, but it was things like that that allowed me to get a glimpse of blue sky in the shit storm that was my life.

            At the very least, comedy is the most fun thing I’ve ever done. At the very most, it saved my life. Either way, I’m in love, I’m addicted, and it’s the only thing I want to do.

            Next time I will have hopefully convinced one of my superstar comedian friends to offer some enlightenment on this topic. So, until then, just keep laughing.