People who are really smart have to make sure that they are emotionally maturing too.

February 27th, 2004 | Comments Off on

A very brilliant friend once told me, “If you want to kill a party, invite comedians.” The reason is because comedians can be a depressed, bitter, angry bunch, and underneath all that diverting of others’ attention with comedy to avoid scrutiny, they are a group that has suffered hurt and has hung on to the pain.

They say that sarcasm is a defensive mechanism. Those gifted at comedy not only feel as though they are outsiders (just like the objective dramatists), but by feeling non-assimilated, they convert their repressed anger into a passive-agressive attack against anything that represents this excluding collective. For example, some comedians are outright angry (Denis Leary). But his humor comes from how witty he can form these insults and ridicule the things he doesn’t agree with. Ellen DeGeneres has a very self-effacing, passive style. I would bet money she has struggled with low self-esteem and as someone who has quite a lot of strength (and desire for control) she makes fun of her flaws first before the perceived hostile environment can. Ray Romano bases his comedy on observations about his personal, domestic life. Perhaps this is not the type of humor he communicated at the beginning of his career, but at this stage in his life, it has evolved to this. Watching the way a person’s comedic style and content evolve can tell you a lot about how the person has evolved psychologically/spiritually. He portrays himself as someone who is helpless to the elements of the domestic world, playing a somewhat passive role as the elements impose on him. In real life, Romano probably plays the dominant role in the household and marriage, yet his need for independence and his fear that he will not get it causes him to be detached in certain areas in his life. This detachment allows him to observe elements in his life in a way that gives him better perspective, and his need to passively conquer this source of his fear causes him to ridicule it.

Oh, and ps–comedians and people whose personality styles involve the use of humor are control freaks. Maybe not over other people, but at the very least over aspects of themselves. But there is a dynamic at play. Either they want to have control over a situation/person, or they are afraid that a situation/person might have control over them. It’s the conflict between these polarities that creates energy and makes them so compelling to watch. Have you ever tried to define what “funny” is? I mean, what kind of response is laughing? Have you ever tried to break it down physiologically, psychologically? It really makes no sense. But it must be good for us. Maybe Shakespeare was trying to show us something about the jester. He is there to act is the mirror of our own inner conflict, but by playing out his conflict in a way that people can observe, a person can internalize this conflict and learn and create more harmony within himself. So the jester plays the most important role in life and symbolism, doesn’t he? But those who are the jesters have been chosen to sacrifice themselves for a greater collective that doesn’t realize or appreciate their sacrifice.

February 27th, 2004 | Comments Off on

Shit, dude, I think my turtle’s depressed.

February 27th, 2004 | Comments Off on