Sunday, October 18, 2009

Comedy Is Like Brain Surgery

Irish singer Ronan Tynan has been brutalized in the press for allegedly telling an anti-Semitic joke.

One giant problem I have with the most of the news media (the Ticker Online, excepted, and I make sure of that) is that it generally displays all the funnybone of a random shooting, and this story was neatly trimmed of meaningful information to fill a headline, column-inches, or segment-time.

Note to any of those who haven't heard the following: read it, understand it, then go read my column in the Ticker Online...

Comedy theory states: Comedy is an uplifting surprise in a social context. Dry, I know, and not funny, but understand that and you know not only comedy, but maybe what you need to present to the gullible public before you do any finger-wagging.

Comedy needs a setup. Some kind, so the punch line gets the proper twist. You missed that. That's my teaser. Oh, and in addition: Even knowing that, the joke was a comment that had little to do with being Jewish in particular.

I'll get it all in crisp order so even you can understand it and not mislead your market and look like fuzzbrains, in the very next edition of the Ticker Online.

Let the embarrassment of my fellow journalists begin.

--K.H.

No comments: