Saturday, January 28, 2012

Trying To Be Funny

I started this blog for several reasons. The first was to keep me writing about something other than my melodrama on a regular basis. The second was to prove to people like my mother that I am actually training for the upcoming mud run (or at least trying). The third was to try and sharpen my comedic skills.

In recent months, I have been tiring myself with my lame over-dramatic, depressed journals to myself and my meaningful, romantic story lines in all of the fiction I have ever written...ever. You know, the kind of stuff where the most pedantic of objects have deep, deep meaning, there are lots of meaningful glances and glares, and it's all part of a greater message about the world. After years and years of writing crap like that, it only reinforces those feelings until you reach your existentialist peak in life, in which you go into a mid-existential crisis crisis. Which I guess means investing in that comedy-convertible, or a COMVERTIBLE.

See what I did there?

Beyond that, my interest in comedy has been growing. I thoroughly enjoy comedic things, so why can't I create my own?

(This is code for: No one pays any attention to me! I want people to listen to me!! I guess I will have to be funny)

Unfortunately my melodrama is one tough bugger to shake, and being funny is hard. :(
Aw. Poor me.


!!?!
...See??

So I have been trying to figure it out for myself, mostly through trial and error. Although, due to a lack of feedback, I mostly have just been randomly doing things.
Last November, when thinking about how I wanted to be more funny, I sat down and *tried* to write a list of funny things to talk/write about. I won't say whether or not I think this list was at all a good uh...jumping off point, but you can decide for yourself. At least it is working as fodder for this *hopefully* funny blog post, right?
Here is how the making of the list went.

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I was sitting alone in my apartment late one night with my writing journal in hand. I wrote down the title of the list to start

Things to write about that might be funny

and underlined it.
Always need to underline the title. It isn't a list unless you underline the title.
Ok, so now I've got to think of something funny. What's funny? Hm....I looked up and gazed around the apartment. Funny things are usually every day things, right? My eyes settled on the pillows on the couch.

1. pillows

Yes. Perfect. Pillows are hilarious. I am laughing just thinking about them. Such ridiculous objects. They are so puffy and full of cotton.

...ok. Maybe not. But the fact that I wrote down pillows is kind of funny in and of itself.

2. a list starting with pillows

...And believe it or not, right now that is proving to be true (I hope)

Alright what else is funny? I am going to be honest with you here, I am not sure what I was thinking for a few of these. The third item on the list is one of them

3. Comedy writers extraordinaire

Not really sure about the direction on that one.
Ok, what about my life is funny?

4. Young females living together --> grittier than you'd think

Yes, "grittier." Three well off white females living in Orange County. SO gritty. You wouldn't even believe. And by gritty, I mean that we have a lot of dishes in the sink and our toilets are kind of gross because we are too lazy to clean them. Hey, what can I say? My family usually paid someone to do it for us.
Damn, so gritty.

5. art school teachers

Actually, that one is pretty legit. They ARE pretty ridiculous. I would know. I live in California, where ridiculous artists flock to find out they can't make any money unless they teach. And shame on the ones that grew up here. They should have known better.
Ok, brace yourself for the next few.

6. Dangerous lives
7. Vodka commercials
8. Alter egos
9. Video game formulas

I think I hit upon genius here. My specificity really digs in and provides some great insights on life. You can hope to see these in my upcoming stand-up routine everybody. Prepare to have your mind BLOWN.

And finally, my favorite.

10. Pick apart words

...like convey

and off to the side on the opposite page is a note I had written to myself earlier that says

Learn more about the word convey

Of course. Convey is such a strange word when you really think about it. "Con," and "vey." Whoa. There is really a lot to pick apart there. I will probably have to do a lot of research to figure out the latin roots and ultimate meaning of the word, then I can twist it around and play on it's meaning. I can already see my imaginary audience in stitches, simply begging for more.

And at that point, I got tired from all the brainstorming, and having been so pleased with my work thus far, I went to bed.

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So what do you think? Funny stuff, right?


Alright, so maybe I am not exactly comedy genius just yet. But to be fair, a lot of these things you could probably spin in the proper way to have some humor. I just don't know how to do it yet. I guess another one of the transformations I want to happen is to turn into super fit hilarious badass lady.

Is there such thing as a hilarious badass?

If there isn't, I will be the first!

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