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A Funny Thing Happened . . .
4-Jul-2009
Written by: Kristin Hunt
An appreciation of humor essayists.
Here at “A Funny Thing Happened,” I try my best to include as many forms of comedy as possible. Movies and TV are probably my most frequent topics, but I’ve also involved online content and stand-up comics in the past. However, it occurred to me this week when I picked up “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” that I’ve neglected an oft-underappreciated medium: essays.
Writers like David Sedaris may enjoy considerable commercial and critical success, but I can’t say I’ve had many conversations about humor essayists. It could be that I’m hanging with the wrong crowd; most people my age read nothing at all. Yet if you were to survey every person in America, I’d bet that comedians like Adam Sandler and Ellen DeGeneres would register way more than Sedaris and Dave Barry.
It’s easy to understand why humor essayists have such a low profile. Comedy is usually expected to be very visual and visceral. We want to see George Saunders’s ludicrous commercials from “In Persuasion Nation,” not read about them. Words on an unadorned page can come across as dull when compared to the hijinks of sitcom stars. But people quick to dismiss the written word don’t know what they’re missing.
Comedy essayists offer a level of relatability rivaled only by stand-up comics. We’re getting their own personal stories and ideas, and because of the medium, they’re told exceptionally well. Unable to rely on absurd voices or spastic motions, these writers have nothing else to present but their reflections - and so the results are almost always fantastic.
Essayists also tend to offer surprisingly intelligent insights that you won’t find as readily in other comedy forms. Chuck Klosterman’s hilarious and brilliant “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs,” for instance, finds meaning in The Sims, John Cusack movies and even the Pam Anderson-Tommy Lee Jones sex tape. This kind of creative commentary is hard enough to create when you’re being serious. Adding humor requires both analytic and comedic skills, a combination that is exceedingly rare and all the more praiseworthy.
As much as I enjoy humor essayists, I’ve only scratched the surface myself with this genre. It’s a problem I plan on rectifying immediately, starting with my completion of “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” and continuing with Sloane Crosley’s “I Was Told There’d Be Cake.” I suggest you take a similar course of action if you haven’t done so already. Together, we may be able to kiss underappreciation of comedic essayists goodbye.
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