This book starts off with the sentence: "I was born with water on the brain." The author goes on to say "My brain was drowning in grease." and describes the first sentence as the more serious and poetic way to explain his condition. I think, in just two sentences, the author was able to sum up the was us humans deal with unfortunate events. Some people become serious and mull it over while others joke about it; when I think about it, almost all of my favorite comedians are very sad people, like Bo Burnham who gets a lot of material from making fun of himself being sad (his song "Sad" is a great example of this). I guess sadness just makes for great material.
In this book, the author seems to take the latter approach. He draws exaggerated comics making fun of himself and says he belongs to "Black-Eye of the Month Club." He has been delt a pretty sucky hand in life, yet he is able deal with, or at least make fun of, his life and situation by channeling his emotions into his comics and humor.
Humor is a great way to react to and deal with sadness and suffering, but that doesn't mean being serious and poetic is a bad way to deal with life. So many of the best artists and poets and creative people are going through some sort of sadness or pain in their life. The most iconic and famous poems come from the sadness and pain life brings, like "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost which talks about how nothing can stay perfect forever and that suffering will always return at some point.
Although being sad is never very fun, no matter how you channel your emotions, amazing things can come from horrible things.
What a wise reflection, Phoebe. You're really digging into how the humor works in this book ... and in life in general.
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you thought about the author translating his sadness into humor. Most people would never think of mixing these two things but you talk about how sadness actually enhances humor. Mentioning the comedian Bo Burnham and a poem by Robert Frost backed up your point and gave your entry greater depth.
ReplyDeleteI, despite not reading this book, can kind of relate. As someone with a super severe dairy allergy I kind of know what he means by making comedy out of misfortune. All the time I make jokes about my dairy allergy, which helps my friends realize that I am okay with it and I accept myself how I am. I think that doing things like that is kind of common but super important to point out.
ReplyDeleteI, despite not reading this book, can kind of relate. As someone with a super severe dairy allergy I kind of know what he means by making comedy out of misfortune. All the time I make jokes about my dairy allergy, which helps my friends realize that I am okay with it and I accept myself how I am. I think that doing things like that is kind of common but super important to point out.
ReplyDelete