Laughs from nowhere

Humour is a force that binds and divides.
It is as hard to define as the force of love and yet as simple. When you burst out into an honest laughter, just as with love, it just happens.
Similarly, what may be infatuating for one, might be repulsive to the other. I expect everyone to have wondered why person next to them is laughing, just as I expect most people to have encountered love they cannot understand.

Generally, differences in taste of humour are not very much of a problem, but when your everyday life gets permeated with shit that can only be described as offensively boring, then there is little room for understanding. A respectful approach is not an option when mindless attempts at amusement escape the media and start pouring out onto the street.

There is no way to tell who got the charging freight train of sedative performances going, but if there is something keeping that train speeding ahead then it's the american sitcoms and worthless comedians that get too much publicity.
For me there is a crucial element in humour that is both the magic and vigor of the performance, but it's a rare encounter today:

Surprise

The unknown. I need the unexpected because it pulls me out of everyday life and lets me experience something different, something intriguing in its peculiarity.
The near total absence of surprise in most of (but in no way limited to) the American humour, is baffling to me. How can this junk survive (not to mention prosper)?
The answer lies in an entity even more baffling, the viewers. The survival of these Valium substitute shows could be explained by the fact that people actually are giving the time to enjoy this turd; there must be many of them.

I get intimidated by having a supposed comedy use jokes that you can smell from an ocean away and then have them repeated so often that you get to experience déjà vu every five minutes.
But these people don't, and they even laugh. Why?

Do they have a lacking comedial experience? Have they never encountered these laughs?
Do they disregard the fact that they know what is about to be said? Could it be that they don't remember the gags?

Is chronic amnesia is the key to a more joyous life?

They're everywhere

I've met these people, you have too. You might very well be one of them. They're normal people that seem to live normal lives, and yet...
I'm not condemning you or anyone else for your taste, but I've tried for too long now to understand why people appreciate this unending stream of feces pretending to be comedy.
Understanding the world around me is a passion of mine, but I just can't grasp this.


Why American humour doesn't humour me

I went to see Dylan Moran yesterday.
I was quite hesitant at first to order the ticket, having two exams the same week. In retrospect however, I would never be able to forgive myself for not taking the opportunity to see my favorite comedian, bar none.

Me and my friend FreddyBoy (with whom I went to see the performance) are the type of people who have seen the Black Books series somewhere around four times over, and we've both lost count on how many times we've seen the standups "Like Totally" and "Monster" (playlist). This inevitably made us wonder whether we would have to sit through an amalgamation of all the punchlines we knew by heart, even though this was a part of a new tour called "What it is".

All my hesitation was gone within the first few minutes, and I was quickly reminded why Black Books was the first TV-series that had me laughing into pain. I spent a bit more than two hours listening to witty sarcasm and interesting views of our everyday lives, and I just kept wanting more. The main theme was what a person is to believe in, in this turbulent world of ours. Science, religion and politics were discarded in favor of pleasure. Naturally, the performance took different directions at times, which only served to make the show more interesting.

Dylan Moran is a master of comedy. What puts him among the legends is the unpredictability and his lapidary way of portraying the world around him.
The first mentioned trait is what has made me stop appreciating and literally avoid American comedy. I both know every word that is going to be said, and how it is going to be said. Indeed it might have been entertaining the first or second time, but that's where it ends.
Brittish comedy often challenges the audience, asks it to try to keep up with the twists and turns created by the authors. Unpredictability creates interest because it gives us something to explore. But what if the world explored is a bland one? That is where Moran is able to use a few select words to exaggerate it into a caricature which grabs your attention, seemingly out of nowhere.

No matter how much I love this man's work however, I have to point out that it seems the ones sharing my taste are rather few. The majority of friends I've shown Moran's work for have sat for lengthy amounts of time wondering where the fun is to be had.
Take it as both a warning and an invitation.

When Moran is speaking, I listen. You should too.