Face it, Hollywood has lots of elephants!
What is considered funny can be deeply subjective and wonderfully universal all at once. The subjectivity of comedy was recently made apparent when the world collectively gasped and chuckled as The Golden Globe Awards host, Ricky Gervais roasted Hollywood, opinions of his performance varied from amusement, to anger to "who cares?"
Writing comedy is a dance between free expression of one's own sense of humor, the rebelliousness inherent in just about every comedian, and what is socially acceptable, relatable and or "allowed" by whomever one might be writing for. Equally as important as making audiences laugh, is a comedian's propensity for being all but unable to ignore the proverbial "elephant in the room"; In fact, if there is an elephant in the room, not only won't the average stand up comic be able to ignore it, but said comic will most likely be feeding it peanuts and riding it around shouting "Look at this elephant! It was just standing here in the room! Why is no one talking about this elephant?"
Get that arrow out of your head!
Not all comedy need be controversial; stand up comedy can be silly too. While the US and the world were recovering from the turbulence of the 1960's, many stand ups were making statements with politically charged material. One actor/comedian observed this trend and said to himself "I'm just gonna be silly." That performer was Steve Martin , and a country of people that needed some silliness in their lives responded so favorably, Martin became a performer of rock star proportions, and the first stand up comic to pack stadiums.
Another comedian that became huge in the 70’s was George Carlin. Having already built a career in the previous decade (his first television appearance being on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar in October of 1960,) Carlin seemed to reinvent himself, becoming a mouthpiece for a generation. He combined silly antics with social commentary so poignant, his audience could be considered more like followers than fans.
These were the heroes of my childhood; brought into my life via NBC's Saturday Night (Better known today as Saturday Night Live) on October 11, 1975, I had just turned six and my mom worked late weekends as a waitress, leaving me in the care of my aunts and uncles who were mostly teenagers and, thank all that is right in the universe, didn’t have the good sense to censor a six-year-old's television viewing habits. My three favorite shows that year were Saturday Night Live, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Muppet Show. Why did it take me till I was 36 to become a comedian?!
“Chicks aint funny” ~John Belushi
In the years since my first attempt at becoming a comedian one thing has become impossible to ignore: I’m a middle-aged female. Even the birth of my four children didn’t rouse me from the delusion that I was cool as much as the icy bucket of water in the face that is the world of stand up comedy. I know some of my fellow female funny girls (alliteration not intended, but I’m leaving it!) might be opposed to me saying this but, I will fearlessly admit right here and now that I suffer from what Freud called “Penis Envy."
The veil of naivety that audience members are so blissfully entertained through no longer protected me as I became more entrenched in learning about the history of the family I was now a member of. Most of my heroes were men. When I was six I imagined wearing a cool black hat and sunglasses in the dark and singing Soul Man. (Actually, I still imagine doing that.) My heart broke just a little when I first read John Belushi’s words.
I think many female comics see themselves as one of the boys. And who could blame them; the boys are consistently having more fun. When I was a kid, the girls would huddle in little groups, and trade stickers or whatever they were doing while the boys (me included) had dirt clot wars. Why would anyone want to hang out with the girls?! They were totally yucky! Alright, so I may have been a little confused. But I haven’t grown out of my childish longing to be one of the boys, my current favorite form of entertainment being, The Opie and Anthony Show, on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
Thanks to my husband introducing me to the show, I am once again immersed in a world of boys that think girls are yucky. But, in the boys' defense, Opie and Anthony have had some very funny women in their line up of comedic guests, of late. My favorite being Amy Schumer, one of many female stand up comedians breaking the stereotype that chicks aren’t funny.
Low Brow, Schmo Brow
When the very first cave man stood up and said, “Ever notice when hit in head with rock it funny?” You can be sure another cave man said “Hey, I got hit in head with rock, rock hurt! No joke about rock!” Comedy requires a victim. From the most self deprecating comic to the government, the world, even God. Nothing is safe from ridicule, nothing is too sacred, and nothing should be.
Long gone are the days when the avant-garde comedian Lenny Bruce could be arrested for cursing in public, but a new wave of censorship is always upon us. Ok, so Clarence Thomas needed to work on his delivery, and maybe learn a little about his audience when trying to be funny, or whatever he was trying to do, when talking to Anita Hill, but now we all have to be deprived of emailing naughty comic strips around the office because one guy doesn’t know how to pick up chicks. Gone also are the days of making copies of your butt and leaving them in your co-workers cubicles, fine! Fun’s over!
Quite frankly, if you plan on feeling victimized, don’t turn on your television, don’t listen to the radio and for all of our sakes, stay out of the comedy clubs. Comedy is the whipping boy of the so-called decent people of the world. In the 80’s and early 90’s it was music (even though, 2 Live Crew is pretty funny) Then Tipper came along with her little stickers (what is up with girls and stickers?) and the world breathed a sigh of relief that its children were once again safe from Prince and The Dead Kennedys.
We should all be thankful for the so called shock jock and for the cringe comic, keeping human expression alive and fighting tooth and nail to prevent the dilution of language by the politically correct, and for the right to be silly. Or, don’t be thankful. You don’t have to even like it. There are certainly a lot of things I don’t like. But I just simply look deep inside myself, find out what it is about me that gives me a negative opinion, and then drag it out on stage and make fun of it.
What’s so funny? Everything!
Heather Height - Hi! I'm a stand up comedian, sex advise talk show host and a writer. I pride myself on having an enormous amount of seemingly useless ...
