I got some tickets to a standup routine for my birthday and tonight, we got to go - two and a half years after I received the tickets. The tickets were bought in February 2020 and by my birthday in March, things were locking down. I did buy myself something though - a few hundred euros worth of Bitcoin, which was pricing around $5000 at that time.
Tonight's show was John Cleese, of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame and general silliness notoriety. The show was not like the usual standup these days - it was calm, quiet and was filled with nostalgia in a good way, using well know clips from the past to tell personal stories that connected with the world today. For someone circling the drain at around 82 years of age, it was funny, relevant and engaging enough.
In many ways, he is much like the typical grumpy old man, but at the same time - he understands what is timelessly funny and spelled it out for the audience through various illustrations of why the modern "woke" comedy is not funny. There has to be challenge in the humor and there has to be reality, but the funniest things are the uncomfortable realities, the taboo subjects, the pains - the darkness. People find it funny, as long as it is not about them, or how they identify. What happened to the saying,
Learn to laugh at yourself?
I have a pretty dark humor and at least in the real world, I don't shy away from the taboo and uncomfortable, often riding the edge of people's sensibilities. But the edge is not dangerous, if the intention is in the right place and I think that Cleese surmised it well by saying that it is funny, when it is done with affection. Sure, it might not always land, but if it is coming from a place of love, it can be excused.
It is like old friends poking fun at each other, trying to land a blow and "hurt" the other in ways, that build admiration and strengthen friendships, instead of tearing them down. But in order to be able to do this these days, one has to be serious about taking life lightly - rather than serious about taking things seriously.
Life is funny.
Death is even funnier.
It isn't morbid to laugh at pain and suffering, unless it is done from the position of a sadist, taking pleasure in other's pain, rather than pleasure in the absurdity of the situation of this life we are provided. The irony of having so much open potential, but not being able to take it. The becoming successful, only to have bad luck take it away. Funny is recognizing the futility of our attempt to control our journey, and being okay with it.
Before I die.
I don't want to die, but I am not afraid of dying either, because I don't place a lot of meaning on my own life as a life, even though some people might be currently relying on me doing certain things - my duty. But, duty ends at death, no more can be done, which also means that there is no point worrying about what is going to be left undone, the open cases at work, the unfinished project at home, the dishes in the sink.
As important as our life is in the current moment to us, in the grand scheme, it is not even a disrupted pixel on the scanner of universal relevance. Yet, our lives are not meaningless either, as they are all part of the greater conversation of the universe, even though none of us can move that needle very far, especially over time.
Just look at the past atrocities in our world and recognize how we have moved on as a society, left them forgotten and open to be blown away from our awareness. The most terrible crimes in history, go unwritten, but so do the greatest of loves. Have you ever thought about that?
One of my favorite movies is Life is Beautiful, which tells a story of some of the most horrific times in known human history, with a Nazi concentration camp as a backdrop. Yet, even then, there is the opportunity for fun and adventure, as a father makes a game for his son out of internment, to shelter him from the horrors of the reality of the situation. The reality was still there, but the framing had changed.
This is comedy, isn't it?
It is about love. It is about making people feel better about the terrible realities we face, to make them feel that they are not alone. That there are people paying attention enough to observe and understand them, and connect with them at an emotional level and treat them as strong enough that they can survive the ribbing, because relative to the reality, the jokes are nothing. There is no cruelty in humor, it is made to empower. If it is made to hurt, it was never intended to be funny.
Today though, people claim to be "sensitive" when in actual fact, they are the opposite. They take words literally and seriously, even when they know that it was never the intention for it to be taken that way. They take offence, even when the joke is not about them - they take offence on behalf of another, but enact the punishment as it was they themselves who were wronged.
We have caged ourselves with "political correctness" by becoming the very thing we hate, politicians. Pompous self-importance, believing that we know what is right for all others and we know how others feel. We talk about celebrating individualism, but if the individual finds the wrong thing funny, they are to be punished and outcast from society, because after all, they should know better.
Perhaps they do.
Maybe it is those who can laugh at the traumas of the world who do know better, because despite all the pain, they are able to dust themselves off and keep pushing through the futility. Having humor is to have an attitude of never giving up, because where there is laughter, there is hope, even when facing the inevitability of our own deaths.
And perhaps this is the crux of it all -
if you can't laugh at death, life is hell.
The show is called, "Last time to see me before I die", and I think that is what we are all looking for in life - someone to see us. Someone to see us for who we are and acknowledge that in some way, our life mattered, even if it didn't matter much.
And in a world where we are making each other increasingly less relevant, the sense of invisibility is growing to the point, people are literally pasting pictures of themselves to share with others saying, look at me.
Please look at me.
But what is actually seen?
Funny.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
