Funny Stuff

I’ve never thought of myself as a comedy writer, and I don’t see my future veering that direction, but this morning I was reflecting back to a column I used to write for my old Army newspaper. It was called Pick Up the Paper (the very first column I entitled Pick Up the Paper and Read All About It, but I shortened it when I was asked to write another such column). I believe I wrote about 50 of those columns, and while the subject matter varied from issue to issue, I often injected humor into real situations that either I or others found ourselves in. Occasionally I would tread the sentimental path and hope to cause my readers to shed a tear or two, but more often than not, I would fill the space with outrageous situations in hopes of making my audience smile.

More comments came my way from Pick Up the Paper than anything else I wrote while working for Uncle Sam – positive comments – yet a so-called civilian “expert” once went over our post newspaper critically to show how it could be improved, and he said to drop that column because it does nothing. I’ve sometimes wondered if that man had a pulse, or just simply didn’t like to be entertained. Perhaps he hates writers like Dave Berry or Tim Dorsey. Some people compared me to Dave Berry, but my stuff was certainly more grounded in real life. Crazy antics and other things I would talk about just weren’t his cup of tea.

And sometimes those crazy antics focused on things I read about in the “real” newspapers. I would find weird but true stories and comment on them, wondering where in the world common sense had flown off to.

Anyway, though I don’t aim to produce comedy tomes, I do tend to infuse it into most of my works of fiction. My short story Something the Wind Blew In, while dark, with some grotesqueries going on, is laced with humor. Same with my novel Prometheus Stumbles. And isn’t it true that sometimes when faced with dangerous or stressful situations, we find ourselves wanting, longing for, something to be able to laugh or smile about?