My Terrible Sense of Humor

I've mentioned multiple times in previous posts that I have a terrible sense of humor.  I think I should clarify a bit.  When I say I have a terrible sense of humor, what I mean is that my sense of humor has been completely incompatible with mainstream comedy for as long as I've been aware of it.  I've totally failed to respond to most major comedians and comedic trends from 1994 (the dawn of Jim Carrey and the Farrelly brothers) to roughly 2014 (the tail end of the Adam Sandler era).  It's only recently that I've found a few alternatives that are more in line with my sensibilities.

As a kid, I remember watching a magician special on television, and one of the segments involved Penn & Teller out on a pier, with a volunteer from the audience.  They were there to do a comedic bit.  They put the guy in handcuffs and asked if he could get out of them.  He could not.  Then they locked him in a crate and asked if he could get out.  He could not.  They proceeded to nail him in the box, while the man inside started to protest and shout, before they dropped the crate in the ocean and it sank.  Now, at the time I was old enough to understand that it was probably a trick of some kind, because people didn't just kill random people on television, especially on cheesy magician shows.  However, I was also very creeped out by the sequence of events, and not totally sure that I hadn't just seen Penn & Teller murder somebody for real.   

I mention this incident as an example of how sheltered I was, and how out of touch I was with mainstream culture for a big chunk of my life.  As a child and teenager, I was more liable to be frightened by media than most of the kids my age.  I almost never watched horror films.  At the age of fourteen, I was disturbed for weeks by a trailer for a film about Nostradamus, because it had apocalyptic imagery of buildings collapsing.  I often took things more literally and more seriously than they were intended, and assumed sarcasm was meant as hostility.  I watched a lot of sitcoms with my parents, things like "Cheers" and "Golden Girls," and occasionally the more family friendly output of comedian-turned-actors like Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, and Steve Martin.  However, I had little exposure to the more aggressive, subversive humor of shows like "Saturday Night Live" and "In Living Color," and this was the humor that became much more popular in the '90s.  Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey broke out when I was in high school, but I only saw the very tamest of their output.  It wasn't really until college, and a lot of exposure to Comedy Central, that I approached anything close to an understanding of what mainstream humor for adults actually looked like. 

And it quickly became apparent that it wasn't for me.  I couldn't stand toilet humor.  I couldn't stand "idiot manchild" behavior.  Cringe humor was an ordeal to withstand, not something I would willingly subject myself to.  Embarrassment humor, especially when ramped up to the level of public spectacle, was excruciating.  Grown men who acted immature and selfish and mean were immediately off putting.  I couldn't relate to them at all, and had no sympathy for them.  And if you've been paying attention to the last three decades, that rules out most of Judd Apatow, the Farrelly Brothers, the Frat Pack, the Wayans, "American Pie," "South Park," "Jackass," and 90% of the rest of theatrical comedies produced by Hollywood.  These movies were very masculine, very sophomoric, and very testosterone-driven.  Even the ones starring women all seemed to involve drunken hijinks and humiliation.  There were some that I liked, here and there, but for a very long time I just gave up on the R-rated comedy.  I accepted that I was not the target audience, and watched something else.

It's only been in the past few years that I've quietly been edging back into the theatrical comedy space.  The number of R-rated comedies I've actually liked has crept up - "Barb and Star," "Blockers," "Game Night," "The Big Sick," "Brittany Runs a Marathon," "The Death of Stalin," and the latest Borat movie.  I suspect a big reason for this is the decline of the mid-range film, pushing more theatrical releases to either be shoestring productions or massive ones that have to appeal to global audiences.  Comedies are more niche, more oddball, and more personal.  Television and web series are where the real innovation is now.  And as all this new talent has been coming in, and we're finally getting different POVs and different voices in the mix, it turns out that some comedy is for me.  I like stand-up.  I like funny movies when they're smart and well-written.  I can relate to comedians.          

Has mainstream comedy gotten out of a rut, or have I finally matured enough to appreciate it?  Hard to say, but it's been a relief.

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