Comedy - Just a thought.......

Last night a small group of us went to the Comedy Club in Central London. Can I start by thanking firstly a great friend for arranging this, secondly the Police Cadets and Police People we were with who were there early enough to secure the tickets and fabulous seats, and thirdly the acts that were on last night and the compare who were just brilliant, if a little "drunk" towards the end of the evening!!

But, and here comes the thought for today(!!), what is comedy really and what do we actually look for to make us laugh?

Let's look at the basics, what is actually comedy........

A man goes into a bar.... Is this funny, probably not

The same man walks into the same bar, Ouch... Now this has an air of comedy about it, predictable and juvenille, but comedy none the less. We are laughing at the misfortune and someones potential mishap.

The same man walks into a bar, with a crocodile up his posteria, Ouch and the crocodile falls out....We laugh more both at the misfortune and at the thought of a crocodile and the hidden question of "why is it there?"

So what is comedy, and how does it work? Without a doubt comedy based upon true life experience causes us all to laugh out loud. The comedians yesterday who relayed stories rather than 1 line "gags" were funnier. The 1 liners were funny, but the true comedy highlighted situations we have all been in and can relate to.

So, does this really highlight true comedy to an adult audience. I split up adults from children, as Children have a different sense of humour, and lots seems to revolve around "willys, bums and farts!!!"

Let's think of a situation - the car won't start - is this alone funny? probably not, we have all had this happen and we all have cursed. Has the car not started because of a potato in the exhaust? Again, the scenario can be made funny but it is not likely to have happened.

However the car won't start for a very mundane reason, it needs fuel perhaps, or (and more likely) it has diesel in and it is unleaded!!! Now, on face value this is a disaster but is it?

Is it not actually a lead into a comedy situation? We have experienced the annoyance of this, we have tried to solve the situation. But, put into the context of a comedy situation it suddenly becomes very funny. A car that doesn't run, NOT FUNNY!! Until we add in the why and the stupidity of something very mundane causing all these problems. We laugh because we have all experienced it. We laugh more and louder because we hope and assume that the misfortune is happening to someone else. This is purely the pleasure / pain scenario. Someone elses pain is pleasure for us.

We all laugh out loud at misfortune when someone else is experiencing it. We all laugh out loud when Billy Connolly swears and talks of how he got drunk in a bar with the local nutter. Every one of us laughs out loud as we can relate to this and in most cases can back up the story with a similar version of the same story that has definately happened to us. The similarity shows the comedian is a real person and poetic licence lets us expand "slightly" on what has happened so we can impress and be likened to the, now very popular, comedian.

Let me use last night as an example, the on-stage stand up talked off an Australian heckler, most people at the show nodded agreement as we would all swear we agreed that Aussies are uncouth. The comedian explained the heckler was suggesting the British were sad as we lost the ashes and gave the score. Whether we understood cricket or not, we all disliked the heckler instantly, more laughs to encourage the comedian more. The comedian then explained his very witty answer and its very bad timing. This misfortune caused a huge audience laugh, everyone hoped the next line told of the stand-ups fate. When it did the laughter was more and even greater. We all had a similar story to tell, and we all roared with laughter at some one elses problem. It is the Pleasure / Pain scenario all over again..........

Now what this actually tells is a deeper story, it is the one of does laughter help??

I say YES!! I openly admit to having had a torrid couple of years for various reasons. I know of friends who have also had a rough time, I know there are some of us still trying to get on an even keel. And I know that in the global scale of things our small issues are nothings, but to us they are huge, but there are also lots of other problems in the world. These are happening to individuals like me or whole nations, races or even the world.

What has universely helped - me, my friends, other people, nations races or the whole world?

I say the ability to laugh, that one small act of smiling and laughing shows that even when everything is looking dire, and solutions are not being found to problems. When all is looking black. Something, somewhere will raise a small smile and a tiny bit of laughter from us, this tiny act, this seemingly insignificant action makes a huge difference and just for a snapshot of time the despair can lift. It is these small periods of time that just about keep us going.

Laughter can come from the strangest sources, here is an example to leave the thought on.........

A few years ago I lost my Grandfather. At the time my now 10 year old was only about 2. The coffin was in the church, people were crying, my (now also dead!!) father was giving a very moving tribute to his now departed father. In the middle of all of this despair, at a time when emotions were fraut, my son wondered into the middle of the Church where the coffin was and had a good look, he asked a few strange questions about was "Grandad" in the "strange box" he looked all around it, and under it and then pointed at the coffin and stated it was very nice but he prefered yellow as a colour. For a short time the mood lifted, everyone laughed out loud, and the break in despair allowed my Father to finish what was a difficult speech.

The breaking of the despair we felt and the relief of laughter gave every person at the funeral a happier moment. The pause in proceedings gave us all a chance to compose ourselves to see the event through to the end. It is this ability of laughter that makes it special, and it is this lightening that allows us to carry on. For this reason I salute laughter and the bringers of laughter.

I hail these situations as moments to be captured and held and I ask for more.