Plausible Humor

I just watched an episode of Two Broke Girls. I wish they'd write a little more realistically, though the idea of buying one of a kind designer jewelery in the bathroom is amusing. What I am wondering is why these girls would hike all over town trying to get a decent price for the gold content of unique, collectible rings. Why not auction them off? If the best the gold monkeys would offer is $225 for one ring, start the bidding at $225. Seems like something a rich girl would know. I'm a poor girl and I know it.

This is why I don't write comedy, I guess.  I need it to be plausible. I think there's plenty of fodder for realistic comedy. People do some whacked shit. My sister mentioned that someone had sent a Christmas card to her office, which was passed around so everyone could read it. One guy signed it and passed the card and pen to the next employee. Perfectly natural and funny as hell. Funny is stuff we might actually do. I guess that's why I found the idea of selling rings in the bathroom funny - I can see that as something that could happen.

I had a guy offer me $2 for a cigarette in New york City about ten years ago. I gave him two cigarettes, no charge. I can imagine getting busting for black-market cigarette distribution because you sold a 30cent Virginia cigarette for $2 in NYC. It's ridiculous but plausible. Cigarettes are a controlled substance. I can see the beggar being undercover, and having twenty ATF agents drop into a crouch and whip out gold-plated Glocks for the bust would just be funny.

Something else I find amusing is when someone unwittingly tosses out double entendres. You know the sort I mean, the ones that just silence all conversation for a moment while everyone looks at the poor innocent who said it. We had awesome little chocolate cookies at work the other night. Some of them had white chocolate kisses on them, some had maraschino cherries. One of the guys walked over to the cookies and said - enthusiastically - "Yeah, we got some good cherry action going on over here."  Half a dozen amused faces looked up from paperwork and one voice said "Dude, are you fornicating with the cookies again? Didn't we talk to you about that?" Then the sheer joy of watching as the innocent realizes what he said to begin with. It's just funny.

I think the problem with sit-coms is that they tend to lock the characters into a particular sort of behavior. The characters aren't fully developed, they're just caracatures. Constant short jokes aren't funny after a while. What is funny is seeing tall people and short people working in the same space. Every one puts things down where they can easily reach them again. If one guy is 6-foot-something and the other is barely 5 feet tall, they aren't going to agree on what is reachable. It's even funnier if the tall person is female and the short person male. When he climbs up to where she put the salt shaker, he is suddenly confronted with tampons or a stash of K-Y. Or she has to get under the counter to find a bowl he put away and finds a copy of Bestiality magazine open to the centerfold.

That's funny on different levels. First, just being faced with the unexpected is funny. None of those items belong in a kitchen, most men are wigged out by feminine accoutrements, and most women would be appalled to be flashed by the centerfold of a tasteful magazine; Bestiality magazine would just exaggerate the disgust. Not to mention, anyone finding that magazine in the kitchen is going to think twice before eating the turkey.

Second, it's funny because it makes us think about our world view. I imagine really tall people see a lot of crooked hair parts, dandruff, and bald spots.Not to mention, cleavage. Really short people probably notice double chins, nose hair, and buggers. For either to suddenly see the world from a different height opens up huge potential for comedy. I can just see the guy using the K-Y in place of WD-40 to oil a hinge, or the girl shoving the centerfold under the stove as a roach repellent.