Skip to main content

Theater Humor

There's two kinds of humor, or rather--senses of humor.

I learned this recently when I found an extremely inappropriate joke funny while it seemed to appall everyone else around me.

Some people like regular humor, and I like theater humor.

Theater humor being wildly offensive and grossly distasteful.  That's the stuff that's guaranteed to make me laugh.  The sort of thing the class clown yells at the teacher from the back of the class, or a joke told about somebody who's only been dead for five minutes, or pretty much any joke told at a roast.

Virtually nothing makes me laugh out loud (despite what all of my Internet conversations say), but that kinda stuff does.

For awhile, I didn't think of it as a separate kind of humor.  I would laugh at a joke, and if other people didn't, I would assume they didn't have a sense of humor at all.  Now I realize they probably did, and I'm just depraved and need mental help--or it's just that I do theater.

Let's face it--most theater people are interested in some morbid shit.  At the very least, we're not easily shocked.  We all swear, we love playing murderers and assholes, and we all know at least one disgusting knock knock joke involving a cow and the Prime Minister of Amsterdam.

(So they're in the boat, and the Prime Minister says--What are those udders for?)

I now realize that I have to pay attention to the crowd I'm in if I'm going to try to be funny or laugh at something I think is funny.  Luckily enough for me, I'm pretty much always with theater people, so I don't anticipate it being a huge issue.

By the way, did you hear the one about the parrot and Woody Harrelson?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A List of People Who Can Go to Hell Now That I Can't Have Elizabeth Warren

So today was a rough day for everybody who isn't a @#$%-ing #$%hole. Let's just start there. If that upsets you, by all means, go straight to hell. This entire rant is going to be exactly what it sounds like. I am mad and I am going to exercise my right to BLOG ABOUT IT LIKE IT'S 1995, SO BUCKLE UP, BUTTERCUP. I really don't even know where to start, so let's just jump right in with the first person who comes to mind. Bloomberg, go to hell.  You really didn't have anything specific to do with today, but you can just go to hell for spending an ungodly amount of money on literally nothing.  I mean, you could have lit millions of dollars on fire and at least warmed the hands of the homeless, but instead, you made tv stations across the country that are already owned by Conservatives rich, so kudos to you and go to hell. Amy Klobuchar, I STUCK UP FOR YOU AMY.  I got into FIGHTS on SOCIAL MEDIA while DEFENDING your sorry, self-interested ass.  You know

Theater and the Outbreak

After last week's interview, a representative from a theater that recently experienced the results of opening too soon reached out to speak with me. I want to thank this person for coming forward in the hopes that it'll change some minds about what's safe and what isn't when it comes to the performing arts. Here's the interview: ME:  So this wasn't a full production or-- THEM:  No. It was us trying to do a little something for friends and donors. ME:  Who is 'us?' THEM:  The board of _____. ME:  And how long have you been on the board? THEM:  Three years. ME:  What was this going to be? THEM:  There's a, uh, beautiful park here in town, and we wanted to do an outdoor performance of a Shakespeare as a benefit, because, as you know, theaters are having a hard time right now paying the bills. We checked with the local government and the health department for the state to make sure we were doing everything the way we needed to in order to keep everyone s

People You Know Are More Important Than People You Don't Know

This post is in response to arguing with people--straight and gay alike--about a certain celebrity, whether or not she's an ally, if she's pandering, if pandering matters, and whether or not I'm an asshole. The last part is probably an enthusiastic "Yes" but let's reflect on this for a bit anyway without actually giving more time to an argument about a person none of us know, which is a crucial part of what I want to talk about. People you know are more important than people you don't know. I realize it's tricky in an age where we've never been closer or more engaged to our celebrities to keep in mind that we do not know them, they are not our friends, and while we may love them and stan and feel like we're attacked when they're attacked-- That is not true. That is not real. They are in no tangible way connected to us. Now, as someone who is obsessed with pop culture, I get that it's a little hypocritical for me to be making