I've tried to make a blog that people wanted to read many times. I think I've started and abandoned something like fifteen blogging projects. So I've given up on that, I'm settling for the single requirement for qualified authorship: writing about something you know. I choose failure.It's not just that I fail at a lot of things, but that I take pleasure in the failures of others. I believe the German's call it schadenfailure.
Some of my movies are those that are almost universally unappealing. Those that earn less than 5% on the "tomatometer." I like Razzie winners more than Oscar winners sometimes. But a movie can only be so bad. The director will watch it hundreds of times and try to improve upon it's impossible crapiness until it's slightly contained and like a well sealed bag of garbage, only starts to really stink when you pick at it. Really, the ultimate forum for scaring failure is stand-up comedy.
I used to do a lot of open-mics, but I failed to keep up on that. The thing I missed most was watching someone who really sucked. Not just someone who wasn't funny or who had stage fright, not someone who only had their friends laughing at their jokes, but someone who set up their own camera on a tripod as if they'd done this hundreds of times. I like watching someone who is confident well-rehearsed and painfully unfunny. I liked watching their assurance shaken with every silent reaction to a punch-line. They would spiral down to desperation with every failed joke. Finally, in one last hope for some small validation they would pull out their best joke, the one they were sure wouldn't fail, their "ace in the hole," the one they tell jack-offs at parties who hear they do stand-up and ask to hear a joke. That final attempt would elicit one small chuckle, mostly out of pity. Some of these video's make it onto youtube. They are my favorite things to watch on youtube other than old grey whistle test videos and David Mitchell's "Soapbox".
One of the best things I've heard recently was a quote from Patton Oswalt. It was from a terrible movie about failure, that I enjoyed called "Heckler." Patton said something about Comedy being like porn, how it's almost entirely subjective and someones enjoyment of it is proof of it's worth even if most everyone else hates it. Basically, if someone laughs at a joke or is aroused by an image no one can tell them they're wrong. Their laughs or sticky underwear are evidence that it is working. Comedy and porn are perfect artforms because failures are immediately obvious. A soft dick or a bored audience is
When people watch a work of drama, I think they often like it because they know they're supposed to. Their friends tell them that it was good. Sometimes they say stuff like, "I liked it, but I don't know if I'd watch it again." But if they watch a comedy or a porn one of two things will happen. They will not laugh or get aroused and consider it a waste of time or they will get the desired response and love it. They will watch it again when they want the same physical response, and therefore the work becomes deeply personal in the way it's enjoyed.
The only advantage that comedy has over porn is that you can share it with your friends. I never find myself demanding that people who've never seen Raging Bull watch it with me immediately. It's a great movie, but I feel that it's much more urgent that they watch Spinal Tap. When we share a funny movie with each other we find excuses to reference it in our daily lives. We feed off each others enthusiasm for it as our laughter encourages each other.
Some people will tell you they enjoyed a comedy that they didn't laugh, but that's only because many so-called comedies today aren't meant to be funny. They are "dramadies," but they aren't funny movies. They are about story. Movies about story, are difficult to qualify as failures, because they touch different things in people. Comedies are either funny or not, and an unfunny comedy is the best kind of failure.
If you read any autobiography, you will encounter failure, but no where is it as blatent, tragic and frequent as in the life of a comedian, god bless um.
Some of my movies are those that are almost universally unappealing. Those that earn less than 5% on the "tomatometer." I like Razzie winners more than Oscar winners sometimes. But a movie can only be so bad. The director will watch it hundreds of times and try to improve upon it's impossible crapiness until it's slightly contained and like a well sealed bag of garbage, only starts to really stink when you pick at it. Really, the ultimate forum for scaring failure is stand-up comedy.
I used to do a lot of open-mics, but I failed to keep up on that. The thing I missed most was watching someone who really sucked. Not just someone who wasn't funny or who had stage fright, not someone who only had their friends laughing at their jokes, but someone who set up their own camera on a tripod as if they'd done this hundreds of times. I like watching someone who is confident well-rehearsed and painfully unfunny. I liked watching their assurance shaken with every silent reaction to a punch-line. They would spiral down to desperation with every failed joke. Finally, in one last hope for some small validation they would pull out their best joke, the one they were sure wouldn't fail, their "ace in the hole," the one they tell jack-offs at parties who hear they do stand-up and ask to hear a joke. That final attempt would elicit one small chuckle, mostly out of pity. Some of these video's make it onto youtube. They are my favorite things to watch on youtube other than old grey whistle test videos and David Mitchell's "Soapbox".
One of the best things I've heard recently was a quote from Patton Oswalt. It was from a terrible movie about failure, that I enjoyed called "Heckler." Patton said something about Comedy being like porn, how it's almost entirely subjective and someones enjoyment of it is proof of it's worth even if most everyone else hates it. Basically, if someone laughs at a joke or is aroused by an image no one can tell them they're wrong. Their laughs or sticky underwear are evidence that it is working. Comedy and porn are perfect artforms because failures are immediately obvious. A soft dick or a bored audience is
When people watch a work of drama, I think they often like it because they know they're supposed to. Their friends tell them that it was good. Sometimes they say stuff like, "I liked it, but I don't know if I'd watch it again." But if they watch a comedy or a porn one of two things will happen. They will not laugh or get aroused and consider it a waste of time or they will get the desired response and love it. They will watch it again when they want the same physical response, and therefore the work becomes deeply personal in the way it's enjoyed.
The only advantage that comedy has over porn is that you can share it with your friends. I never find myself demanding that people who've never seen Raging Bull watch it with me immediately. It's a great movie, but I feel that it's much more urgent that they watch Spinal Tap. When we share a funny movie with each other we find excuses to reference it in our daily lives. We feed off each others enthusiasm for it as our laughter encourages each other.
Some people will tell you they enjoyed a comedy that they didn't laugh, but that's only because many so-called comedies today aren't meant to be funny. They are "dramadies," but they aren't funny movies. They are about story. Movies about story, are difficult to qualify as failures, because they touch different things in people. Comedies are either funny or not, and an unfunny comedy is the best kind of failure.
If you read any autobiography, you will encounter failure, but no where is it as blatent, tragic and frequent as in the life of a comedian, god bless um.
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