Rejected by Carrot Top

This is a true but humiliating story (and aren’t those some of the best kind?) that dates back several years. A local radio contest was holding a poetry contest. Yes, you read that correctly: a radio station and a poetry contest. But ah, I love to write poetry and I love a good challenge, so I decided to submit a poem. The contest: construct a Valentine’s poem that had to contain the 6 words chosen by the station. No problem, I thought. I can do that. And I did. I also thought it was pretty darn funny and clever. The contest was judged by Carrot Top, (yep, he of the props and such) who was in town doing a show at our local auditorium and the prize was free tickets to that show. Even more embarrassing than the fact that Carrot Top apparently didn’t like my poem (didn’t appreciate my poem was more like it) is the fact that a few years before that, I paid money to see him. I dragged along some guy I was not quite dating, just on the off-chance that the show would be funny. In retrospect, I think there might be a direct correlation between that event and the fact that we never did go on a real date.

But I just could not help myself. I am a junkie. Even deeper than my addiction to all things entertainment-related is my addiction to comedy. I need to laugh, just plain need it so much that I will shake if days go by without so much as a giggle. If comedy were suddenly illegal, I could be found in dark alleyways, looking for a supplier. I am that addicted. Of course, most of my comedy fix comes from favorite television shows, favorite movies, favorite books. There are reliable sources I can visit again and again to get my fix, but sometimes I need to escalate, find new outlets to get the same comedy high. My DVR has become an invaluable asset in my quest to laugh.

Due to the writers’ strike (am I am so pro-writer, so go writers go), it is difficult to get any new humor on a regular basis. So, what is getting me by these days? I’m glad you asked. (Let’s pretend you did.) New episodes of Psych, definitely one of my favorite shows with lots of clever little 80s references. I like anything that can be clever and really funny.

I recently rediscovered Whose Line is it Anyway? (which only shows in the middle of the night, but that is the very reason the DVR was created). I can only find episodes of the American version of a few years back, but I originally watched the airings of the British versions when they showed on Comedy Central (way, way back when Comedy Central was a reliable source of, well, comedy. Now, the only consistently funny show on the comedy channel is The Daily Show.) When I lived alone in my old apartment (and spent much, much time alone), I would devour episodes of the British Whose Line and I really enjoyed it. When the American version aired on ABC, I tried to watch it, but was unable to keep up with the ever-shifting schedule (see also: Clerks: The Animated Series. Hilarious, but virtually impossible to find on ABC. No wonder no one watched it; no one could find it.) Now, however, I am able to watch what I have missed. It is one show that is always funny. Of course, when I started, it was just one episode here, one episode there, but soon I had my DVR set to “record all.” I can’t seem to get enough.

Reaper: hilarious situational humor. Of course most of the credit for the funniness goes to Tyler Labine, whose character, Sock, is reliably funny. (I also liked Labine on Invasion, another one of those shows that no one else bothered to watch and which was also cancelled by ABC. I am seeing a pattern here.) I am a big fan of any show whose actors seem to really enjoy their characters (such as Shawn Roday and Dule Hill in Psych) and Reaper’s cast is no exception – especially in the case of Ray Wise, who is certainly able to inject much more levity into his character than he could with his Leland Palmer, the rotten daughter-slayer of Twin Peaks.

That is basically all the new funny in my life. I haven’t seen a truly funny movie in quite some time. Are there any? Of course there are old favorites I can always rewatch, but sometimes I just need a fix of new humor. Does anyone know someone who can hook me up? I just need a taste, man. Just a taste.
No song of the day, just an amusing tidbit that made me smile this morning. Jude was playing with a barn and animals as I was feeding Sullivan. He said “Look, Mom. All of the animals are coming out of the barn.” “Oh,” I asked him, “Are they planning to have a party?” He looked at me. “No, Mom. They have to poop.”