Comedy: A Few of my Favorite Acts

Ask ‘n’ people to each name his or her ten favorite comedians, and you’re likely to end up with ‘n’ different lists, more or less.

Ask ‘n’ people to each name his favorite type of humor, and you’ll end up with a variety of types as well.

Through the ages, there have been humorous writers, humorous song writers, and humorous individuals or teams who have delighted audiences world wide.

So you think that humor is mostly a Twentieth Century (and beyond) phenomenon?  Think again (buddy).  I would love to be able to have Geoffrey Chaucer over for dinner and have him read his Miller’s Tale (from Canterbury Tales) aloud; or perhaps Shakespeare and friends could perform an act or two from such delightful plays as The Tempest (to see the antics of Stephano and Trinculo) or Midsummer Night’s Dream (when Bottom “acquires” the head of a donkey).

But even those humorous episodes in literature are relatively new compared to how far back recorded humor goes.  The Bible has numerous comical scenes.  Remember when the angel frees Peter from prison, and Peter goes to a widow’s house and knocks on the door, which is answered by a servant girl?  The girl is so excited to see Peter that she slams the door in his face without inviting him in, and Peter continues knocking while the people inside the house are telling the girl that she’s crazy.  Or how about the time Paul was giving a long sermon and Eutychus fell asleep, the only problem being that Eutychus was sitting on the window ledge and he fell out!  Remember Balaam’s donkey, who talked to his master?  Imagine how surprised Balaam was!

And even before these Biblical stories, there is humor to be found in ancient Greek and Chinese texts, as well as in others.

Humor is not new.  Now, it’s true that styles and types of humor can change over time, and different eras have unique types of humor, both in content and method of delivery.  The basic concepts of humor though — being able to laugh at one’s self, being able to laugh at or with someone else, and being able to laugh at comical situations — have existed for thousands of years.

The process of thinking that something is funny (or not) is a subjective thing.  Much of what I think is funny (e.g., Monty Python), my wife doesn’t really appreciate.  My thoughts are that her humorous side just has not fully developed yet; her thoughts are that I haven’t totally grown up yet.