National Punchline
So, we're balls deep in a time where all of America shares the same half-assed punchline.
Not since "Bill and Monica" or Enron have we shared the "joke" that we can shoehorn into any situation and get a guffaw. I'm talking, of course, about Brokeback Mountain.
The laughs garnered by someone saying "sounds like Brokeback Mountain to me..." make my skin crawl. Also, the loudest laughers have not and wil not ever see the movie. They just think the idea of gay cowboys is giggleworthy.
I realized the National Punchline first when my uncle compared something to "like Bill and Monica". It wasn't like coitus or pleasure in an elected office at all. However, many present laughed because they thought the idea of the president getting off was funny to them.
It reared its ugly head years later on the ComedySportz stage when an audience volunteer shoehorned Enron into a game of doctor know-it-all. It didn't make sense in the sentence or the game; yet it garnered a laugh from the audience. Ugh.
I guarantee that it's taking place on stages and in social circles all over America. And people who think homosexuals are "funny" are laughing.
Fight the power, y'all.
In the same vein, if you say the name of the suburb of Schaumburg on a Chicagoland stage, somehow that garners a laugh from the audience. I have no idea how or why, but it never fails. It reminds me of the old Yacov Smirnov joke: "I don't mean to be so hard on Cleveland. Every country has that one city everyone laughs at. For instance, in Russia, we make fun of Cleveland."
Yep, I just quoted Yacov Smirnov.
I am the Weakest Link. Goodbye.
Not since "Bill and Monica" or Enron have we shared the "joke" that we can shoehorn into any situation and get a guffaw. I'm talking, of course, about Brokeback Mountain.
The laughs garnered by someone saying "sounds like Brokeback Mountain to me..." make my skin crawl. Also, the loudest laughers have not and wil not ever see the movie. They just think the idea of gay cowboys is giggleworthy.
I realized the National Punchline first when my uncle compared something to "like Bill and Monica". It wasn't like coitus or pleasure in an elected office at all. However, many present laughed because they thought the idea of the president getting off was funny to them.
It reared its ugly head years later on the ComedySportz stage when an audience volunteer shoehorned Enron into a game of doctor know-it-all. It didn't make sense in the sentence or the game; yet it garnered a laugh from the audience. Ugh.
I guarantee that it's taking place on stages and in social circles all over America. And people who think homosexuals are "funny" are laughing.
Fight the power, y'all.
In the same vein, if you say the name of the suburb of Schaumburg on a Chicagoland stage, somehow that garners a laugh from the audience. I have no idea how or why, but it never fails. It reminds me of the old Yacov Smirnov joke: "I don't mean to be so hard on Cleveland. Every country has that one city everyone laughs at. For instance, in Russia, we make fun of Cleveland."
Yep, I just quoted Yacov Smirnov.
I am the Weakest Link. Goodbye.
posted by Zach at 2:43 PM
7 Comments:
you are right. so.
but even liberal people do it - i wonder if it's not only the gayness, but the intimacy of the movie. it's just a tear-jerker, which i'm sure isn't helping.
the word brokeback is sort of funny.
hoping it will pass soon.
embarrassed i chuckled at yakov,
td
That was an actual Yacov joke. I wasn't just shooting on Clevelo.
This is very insightful. I even did it at CSz in world's worst. World's worst ad slogan for "gum" I made a juicey fruit joke.
This was in a world's worst when we won 12-5 and I did 10 of them...
I think Brokeback sounds like Bareback, which makes it EXTRA funny.
I still haven't seen the movie, and quite frankly I'll wait till DVD. So I can beat off without fear of arrest.
See...it is funny!
that's different funny. funny with, not funny at.
i don't get the juicy fruit thing- does it tie in with brokeback, or are you saying you did a gay bit about being fruity? if so, yuck. people aren't smart enough sometimes to know that you aren't gay bashing, but funnin'. those laughs feel dirty to me.
The suggestion was "Wrigley's Gum" which I said "Juicy Fruit, proud sponser of Brokeback Mountain" or something like that (I said that fo lack of nothing else to say, as it was the 8th in a row I'd done, while my partners sat there and did NOTHING)...I think, it is about a 5 on the 1-10 funny scale. Though the audience went NUTS...which made me feel funnier than I am. As I've always said, popular don't mean right. Look at Hitler and The Da Vinci Code.
PS: There is NOTHING funny about Bruce Vilanch!
Also, let me talk about this for a minute, as my goose is got. If you do comedy for a living, you have to accept all kinds of funny...even if you don't think it's funny. 50% of Artie Lang's stand up is making fun of "da fags" now I think Artie Lang is funny. I don't think those jokes are funny, (Well, one or two are) but I can't go WAIT! That's cheap! because people are laughing. It's like when certian asian improvisors used to get pissed that people do asian accents at IO, then they would go up there and play a retard or black guy...doesn't work that way...now there is a BIG diff between Gay Bashing jokes (that is when there is no punch line or irony or statement or anything) and funny gay humor (like, for instance, 100% of Ant's stuff, ok he's not that funny either, but you get my point) it's a slippery slope (Speaking Of Asians) That make sense? I also agree people are stupid and may interpret things as "That guy hates gays let's have a hearty laugh with him" (or blacks, or Jews, or mormons, or whatever...) but I don't think you can get hung up on that. In the long and short of it, I don't think people that do this are allowed to get offended at other comics stuff...not that my Juciy Fruit joke was A. All that funny B. something I'll EVER say again...but you see what I'm saying? It's all about dicating taste, about assigning standards to comedy, you can't do that...you just cant...am I crazy? Maybe, but I doubt it. much props to you both.
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