Laugh It Up, Fuzzball

We went to see a very funny comic last night. I forgot how much true LOL is amazing therapy for the soul. So this particular comedian, Jeff Dye, was very funny. To me obviously, but no doubt to more than 80% of the comedy club. You can’t make everyone laugh, that’s just the way life goes.

Anyway, it had been a while for me at a comedy club, since last time a few years ago was a bust. But I’m glad I gave it a shot again, my voice is still hoarse from laughing so loud last night. Great humor transcends age, race, culture and gender. Probably among the most  difficult jobs on the planet, when you think about it.

Here’s a sobering takeaway for me from last night: when you’re politically independent you can have a hearty laugh either way. But my 50% conservative 50% independent table was experiencing a bit of a bipolar rollercoaster. When the jokes were poking the left the entire table was in stitches. Especially the conservative ones, hoots and hollers. But when the jokes shifted and poked the right the conservative half went quiet, a nervous laugh here & there. The independent half carried on laughing away like drunk hyenas (OK the “drunk” part is redundant, so, like hyenas.)

I don’t think we had any true liberals at our table, but according to Jeff Dye he’s seen the exact same reaction from liberals in cities across the country. Roaring laughs when the jokes poke the right, but suddenly uncomfortable when the dagger swings left. Dye is originally from Seattle, if that means anything. 

And then that it hit me. Laughter is a release for pent-up anger. Sure, pent-up other things too - frustration, anxiety, self-doubt - generally negative stuff. But at the end of the night negativity can’t stay. Well it can, but the more it’s trapped inside you the more it will lead you to a Vegas hotel window with an AR-15 in hand.

So laugh it up, fuzzball. While injustice anywhere is indeed a threat to justice everywhere, so is one-sided righteousness.  Work it out or let it go, the world is not here to babysit your anger.

...

“I’m from Seattle, I didn’t know what a gun was till I moved away. But I remember when I finally fired one at a range... damn. Don’t mess with me fuckers, I have a gun!”

“Love him or hate him, we have never had a president as funny as this one. I mean, he has literally broken the mold of saying whatever he wants, and then saying the exact opposite. As in, ‘I never said that’. ‘Yes you did! Look, here’s the text you sent me saying exactly that!’ ‘That’s not my handwriting, fake news.’ “

- Jeff Dye