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.

Evening The Score

I'm not a huge fan of teasers, but due to popular request, I'm going to jot down a couple here, with the idea that you'll read my column online or go buy a dead-tree edition. This is teaser #1:

Does anyone have any idea why major league sports have to schedule games so late, that kids are falling asleep in the bleachers and daddies are nodding off driving home after fighting the herd at the end of the game, which is probably around dawn?

There's nothing on this or any other Earth that beats watching on TV. You can catch a few minutes, then shut it off and let your boys win it or lose it without you-- because you have a life, you need your sleep, and you have personal things to tend to in the ayem, such as work or school.

These leagues need to get a message (and it doesn't have anything to do with the screaming wild insane cost to attend a live game, in case you haven't noticed this is the first mention of that teensy little issue.)

Message? We need to send them this: We need to be evening the score.

See my column for the knee-slapping finish. I'll reprint it here, later, if I get some interest.

This is my first-ever teaser. How did I do?

--K.H.