06.25.08
Fit to be Ti-Vo’d
A lot of comics ask me how I can live without tv. “What can you talk about if you don’t have tv?” I have enough notebooks filled with material to tell me that there is a lot of stuff happening outside the tv screen. When we’re so interested in other people’s lives, we lose the awareness of our own lives. And then we of course can’t notice the humor in and around us.
We watch regular Shmo’s fighting with each other in their homes. Then we watch them being arrested by COPS. Now turn the channel and watch them tear down the house and rebuild it while they aren’t home. Now watch the weather in Kansas City. And now a cooking show with non-famous non-celebrities. And we are glued to the screen as someone is melting butter.
How can we be so interested in things that have nothing to do with our own lives? We can’t really laugh at something on tv, because it’s not of us. We weren’t there, we didn’t create the humor. We are merely spectators.
Of course when I ever get a Comedy Central or HBO special, none of this will matter and everyone will be allowed to watch…. But for now, let’s see if WE can be our own sit-com for the day. If we can’t laugh at ourselves, there are certainly people who can laugh at us!
