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It’s a sitcom miracle
February can be a bit of a dour month, so I watched comedy to offset the grey. In particular I like the half-hour format, which feels like a delightful popcorn snack. I re-watched four seasons of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Netflix, which was a fun binge. Casting about for something else, I struck upon One Day at a Time on Netflix, about which I’d heard some positive buzz. What an enchanting surprise awaited me! A wonderful, progressive, humourous (and often poignant) story about a family of Cuban descent, which explores issues to do with feminism, racism, mental health, gender, citizenship, religion, veterans’ issues, and the legacy of cultural traditions all while…
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be funny
What do you do when a problem arises in your country that appalls you? One solution is to be funny. Wicked satire is a fine way to highlight idiocy. This is what Irish comedian Tara Flynn decided to do when her husband endured racist insults in her hometown of Kinsale. She used her talents, and a creative team, to highlight the problem. Ms. Flynn created this humourous sketch about a ‘Racist B&B’ in Ireland. “It’s all the rage! We spotted a gap in the market. We were always a bit racist ourselves, so from there it was just a hop, skip, and a jump to make the B&B as racist…
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everything is amazing
I’ve been meaning for some time to link to this video of comedian Louis C.K. when he appeared on Conan O’Brien Show in 2009. He discusses how ‘Everything is amazing right now and nobody’s happy’, which is a hilarious commentary on how fantastic technology is today, and yet how often people spend time bemoaning the tiny inconveniences it brings. It’s a good reality check, because I’m not immune from being irritated at how long it takes for a device to boot up, or the extra seconds for a web page to load (of course if I didn’t have a million tabs open in my multiple browser windows the computer might…
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avoidance
Today I’m finishing my dreaded task of the year: sorting out my tax returns. It’s a vicious cycle: because I loathe doing this job I avoid doing it. That means, despite the promptings of my accountant, I tend to leave it until rather late. Each year I get stressed about it and once it’s done I swear I will never leave it this late again… until the following year rolls round. One of my favourite observations about this particular form of task avoidance is from the first episode of Black Books, called ‘Cooking the Books‘ (written by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan). First, is the conversation between Bernard Black, with…
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recent laughs
I’m going to lighten the tone in this post because I’ve a tendency to write serious blog entries. That’s partly because I use this journal to tease out writing-related issues that are on my mind. Today I’ll examine two comedies I saw in recent weeks that I really enjoyed. First off I’ll state that I have huge respect for comedy writers because it is a difficult art. There is something miraculous about making people laugh. It’s a gift. It doesn’t hurt that comedy sells, as I pointed out lately. I’ve been making a conscious effort to add more comedy titles to my DVD collection, because I tend to gravitate towards…
