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FUNNY

So what did you think?  Was it, like funny?
I put some thought into polishing it up...

Like for instance, I think it's important
to state that there was a lizard in my
pocket first, before describing reaching
into my pocket and feeling some "rubbery"
thing.
                                       
The way I did it is a little funnier, I
think, that doing it the other way which
would just be confusing.
          
It may not seem like much, but this
little bit of technique was a major
revelation to me...

My usual rule is that the reader
should never know something before
the main character does.  

But verbal description is too blunt
a tool to describe a sensation
accurately, unless you've already
narrowed down the range by supplying
an interpretation.  

Lots of things are rubbery.
A lizard is rubbery in one
particularly way.
          
But then, this might be a particular
case of the general problem that it's
hard to perceive anything without
preconceptions.

Anyway, this humor business is hard work. 

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Subject: More lizard's milk

Ever thought about the problem of what to
say at parties?                          
                                         
(Actually, hopefully you haven't, because
if you don't need to then you're "healthy"
as opposed to "neurotic", at least       
according to Paul Goodman, who had a                   GOODMAN
tendency to sing the praises of
spontaneity, as you might expect from a
1950s intellectual liberal anarchist.
Anyway, I was raised on something more
like the "unexamined life" philosophy,
hence I tend to analyze most everything --
or hadn't you noticed?)

Anyway, so you're at a party.  You're
surrounded by strangers, acquaintances,
and a small number of freinds.  What do
you talk about?  The weather is an
underrated topic, but you do have to sound
enthusiastic and sincere about it, and it
gets played out fairly quickly.  Movies
are usually good for ten or twenty
minutes.  Politics is kind of useless
unless all your opinions fit on a bumper
sticker, and you expect complete agreement
from everyone around you.  You will be
repeatedly asked things like "What do you
do?", but answers like "I'm a Materials
Science Graduate student doing research on
ion implantation of polymers for toliet
bowl seats" tend to kill things pretty
quickly, since you're only allowed a few
seconds to explain each of the terms you
just used. 
           
Last night, I wound up milking the
lizard story.  Too bad they don't      
crawl in my pocket every day.              LIZARD
                                                              
                                                              
  I have learned a few tricks from a                          
  freind of mine, who when things get                         
  slow just starts talking about sex                          
  (e.g. if she's bored at dinner she           Though "So, are    
  might turn to the guy next to her            you gay?" is   
  and ask him how big his penis is).           probably her    
                                               favorite line.            
    Something to remember, anyway.                                       


--------                                                
                                             6/29/92    

My favorite Monty Python joke:                       
                                                    (Well, second favorite.
Some guys are standing around in a                  It's hard to beat the  
bookstore, playing out some schtick                 fish dance.)
or other.  In the background,
unacknowledged, unrelated to the
forground action, there's an ad for a
book (I think Desmond Morris's _The
Naked Ape_).  Emblazoned across it in
huge letters is the advertising hype:
  
   I N T E L L I G E N C E   P A C K E D !!!
                                  
I think this is tremendously funny.  
I can't find anyone else who does.  



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