We watched the AARP Movies
for Grownups Awards on PBS. We thought it would be a good place to find shows
the very grownup people at our house should watch. It was. Also, it wasn’t as
boring as awards shows usually are. But… [You knew there would be a “but,”
didn’t you?]
One presenter was Conan
O’Brien. He is funny. For one joke. The problem is that he tries to turn one
good line into four. He won’t let it go. He keeps working a funny idea until it
becomes tedious. Humor turns to boredom very quickly.
I understand the impulse
to multi-use. As a story-teller, I always tried to get more than one use out of
a story idea—sermon, short story, newspaper column, chapter of a novel, even a
letter.
But working an idea over
and over, in the same way, with no time lapses in between, even if it starts
out as a funny, fits Einstein’s definition of insanity. [Doing the same thing
over and over and expecting different results.]
Part of the problem is
that O’Brien, like many current comedians, base their humor on complaining.
Some, like Jim Gaffigan, are very adept at that. But whining and complaining
can get old in a hurry. Gaffigan moves quickly from one complaint to another,
even if he stays on the same subject. O’Brien works the same complaint over and
over.
I know I’m sounding like
an old man, but Steve Lawrence, Jack Parr, Johnny Carson—they almost always let
a funny stand by itself, or followed it up with only one line if it increased
the humor. They knew when to quit.
Knowing when to quit. That’s
one of the main secrets of humor. And of aging.
I hear a voice saying, “Take
your own advice, old man.” Okay. I apologize. Sort of. I’m done. For now. I’m
sure I’ll have some more complaints later. I want to get more than one use out
of this.
John Robert McFarland
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