a time when humor was actually funny

A liberal-leaning friend chastised me recently for something I said on spacebook. I joked in passing (in the comments of one of my own posts) that I had had a friend in the early 1990’s who had made a real nuisance of himself, calling every night and talking at length about how bad his life was. I finally told him that I had been thinking about his problems and had come up with a solution. He needed to find a place out in the woods where he wouldn’t bother anyone and get it over with. I had a .38 he could have if he needed it. My friend quit calling me every night, and he didn’t commit suicide.

Now to be clear I knew this fellow pretty well. I had worked with him for quite a while, and I had listened thoughtfully to him for many hours – over the course of several nights – offering suggestions for how he might move forward. Nothing changed, and I had my own stresses to deal with. I knew my friend well enough to know that he was just throwing a pity party. He was NOT in the depths of depression. He just wanted someone else to fix his problems for him, like we all sometimes do. He was back to his old self again a few weeks later.

For perspective, I will interject here that there have been friends of mine with whom I would not have done this, knowing their family history or state of mind.

Returning to spacebook, my [so-called] liberal friend was horrified at this story. “You never joke about suicide!” he remarked. He was older than I and had gotten wealthy a decade before in the millwork business. A likable guy and a good businessman. I was a little surprised though at his reaction. I have spent much of my life studying leadership, psychology and human nature. I am weary of people who are caught up in this modern fixation on feelings. The next day I posted the following:

from a time when humor was actually funny…

“The thing I don’t understand about the suicide person is the people who try to commit suicide, for some reason they don’t die, and that’s it. They stop trying. Why don’t they just keep trying? What’s changed? Is their life any better now? No. In fact, it’s worse, because now they’ve found out here’s one more thing you stink at. And that’s why these people don’t succeed at life to begin with. They give up too easy.
I say, pills don‘t work? Try a rope. Car won’t start in the garage? Get a tune-up. There’s nothing more rewarding than reaching a goal you’ve set for yourself.”
— Jerry Seinfeld, from his book SeinLanguage, 1993

What makes comedy funny is that it parodies life. It says things that we might not otherwise say in polite society, and does so in an absurd, roundabout or exaggerated way. Poking fun while maintaining some sense of grace. It tickles us by bringing to the front things our subconscious mind already knows. By its nature it is not politically correct, and doesn’t try to be, or makes fun of the political-correctness itself.

When you live in a society however that is already a parody of itself, already pulp fiction – pathos drenched in yet more pathos… redistilled – where is there a place for humor? Real humor. Sadly – laugh – it is needed more than ever.

I sensed that my point was made. I also believe that when we really care about people it is our duty to talk straight to them. It should be done in a thoughtful way, but it should be done. We can often achieve more in a few days of tough love, than we can in weeks or months of pussyfooting around. This is why a generation of those who need “safe spaces” are doomed to be the slaves of others.


originally posted to spacebook 2019-05-27

7 Comments

  1. Comedy used to be about challenging the status quo and getting people to laugh at the same time hinting at social ills repressing society. Fools or jesters were allowed to push the Overton Window without getting beheaded by the ruling class. I pulled this from Wikipedia on comedy: “Comedy”, in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare’s other plays. Contrast that with the subversive undertones of today’s comedy like Seinfeld’s skit above. He’s not challenging the ruling class but mocking people suffering in our present society. Comedians like Sarah Silverman joke about killing Jesus Christ or having sex with a black God. Bill Maher, another Jew, mocks Christianity in the same way by portraying Catholic nuns in a pornographic depiction like in his show Religiosity. But we all think it’s fun and games now until we start realizing there’s an agenda being waged pushing transgenderism and sodomy. People are reduced to animals, just slightly more advanced than chimpanzees. They move about like an animal, foraging for food, shelter, clothing, sex, and entertainment. Are they wise? Do they notice damaging patterns that can affect them long-term? It appears we are no different than meat cows, in every sense of the comparison besides the species aspect. We have masters that tell us what to do and we passively accept it if we want our feed.

    Jews dominate the media. They have had a long history battling Christianity. They hate Christians despite the silly Coexist logo with the religions all joining together: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, mysticism. That is all part of the Communist playbook. The egalitarianism of religion, race, gender, and sexual orientation. Divide and conquer. The Bolshevik Communists were Jews. The Frankfurt School academics were all Jews. The owners of the central banks are Jews. The professors and academics in the educational institutions are Jewish, Zionist, or Communist. The politicians are Jewish, Zionist, or Communist. Our most powerful lobbying groups are Jewish. The music industry is dominated by Jews. The entertainment industry like sports is dominated by Jews. Big tech is dominated by Jews.

    But the public looks at me like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. Someone who is unhinged and in need of psychotropic drugs and a call-in to the nearest mental health facility. They fail to see the connection of these powerful billionaires calling the shots behind the scenes. Jews are just like us they say. They are human and we need to treat them with compassion. The mantra is always tolerance, compassion, acceptance, and other trite platitudes for the furtherance of the Trojan Horse of political correctness.
    I will close this discussion with a five minute clip from the conservative Jew Andrew Breitbart: https://youtu.be/mWgkYv-JOGA

    • I watched the clip.
      Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama “studied in the tactics of Alinksy” – indeed. I have a copy of Rules for Radicals that sits on my bookshelf.

      Is this what mention of Jerry Seinfeld brings to your mind? This was certainly not the intention of this post.

      • Jerry Seinfeld is a Jewish comedian. Nothing these people do is by accident, believe me. But here I go reeing into the void. The Jewish media has a long history of subverting the Christian European way of life. If you know anything about ideological subversion, which is a destructive form of social engineering, you will know that messages have power. If you teach people destructive things, you are altering their way of life in a damaging way. Give these people an inch and they will take a mile. But I’m the bad guy. There’s nothing the Jews can do that will be seen as immoral. The power they have to manipulate is beyond amazing. I will fall back into the herd and resume my grazing.

    • Aaron, I read your comments from last evening again. It is interesting to note that in Shakespeare’s day a comedy was a story that had a happy ending. That makes sense when contrasted with his Tragedies and Histories.

      As one who has a deeply wry sense of humor I have always stretched the meaning of what many find funny. I have a dark sense of humor. Viktor Frankl talked about how they used humor in the concentration camp as a way of dealing with their dire situation. I could very much relate to that. To say that my sense of humor is somehow Jewish makes no sense to me, and I assume that is not what you mean to say.

      I think the vulgarity with which Sarah Silverman and Bill Maher treat Christianity is pretty effed up, and concur with your observation that this intentionally perverts our society. There is more and more proof however that the Catholic Church institutionalized perversion long ago. I say this as someone who was raised Catholic. I am unclear exactly how the Jews got hold of the Papacy, but if that is what happened then we will strive to find that out in the weeks and months to come.

      Most who call themselves Christians today are full of shit and give true Christianity a bad name. I think this is a lot of the problem, along with Satanic elements in society now making a full on assault on our culture. We will be delving into this big-time in days to come.

      I laughed one day to hear my stepfather say that as soon as someone told him what a good “Christian” they were he got ready to get screwed. Amen.

      • I didn’t say your sense of humor is Jewish. Have you ever seen Jordan Peterson’s debate with Cathy Newman? He says something and she interprets it in her own way that changes his original meaning. Our minds play tricks on us according to our beliefs. We view life with a certain lens. All I was saying is that Jews, who are known to be subversive and associated with Communism, are enemies of Europeans and are not to be trusted. That’s my view. Should I be tolerant and inclusive? Could that be the Trojan Horse that gets slipped past the gates?

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