Where Did the Laughs Go?: A Defense of Comedy
“You’ve never seen Friday?!” my boyfriend, Albert, exclaimed. I blinked unabashedly, shrugging my shoulders at his incredulity, and shaking my head, no. “You have to watch this movie, it’s one of my favorites. I know every line by heart, that’s how much I’ve seen it. I can’t believe you’ve never seen it. It’s really funny.” Well funny I know, I thought, assuaging my bruised ego. It was early in our relationship, and considering myself something of a connoisseur of films, I was hurt that Albert was already calling me out for not watching one of the best comedies ever made. I prided myself in having watched all the classic films that cinema had to offer, albeit I could count on one hand the number of comedies I owned: Sixteen Candles and The Mask.
Pelo Malo
I remember the first time I felt pain because it happened when I was four years old, getting my hair straightened by my mother’s friend. The hot comb, which had gingerly hovered inches from my face, suddenly slipped from my hairdresser’s hands long enough to brand me like livestock.
Anti-Confederate
Early this year while I was walking my Schipperke around my suburban neighborhood, I saw something that struck me so deeply I had to do a double-take. Surely, I hadn’t just seen what I saw: Positioned on the upper right hand corner, on the back windshield of a blue Ford truck, fastened like a badge, was the unmistakable “Southern cross” of the Confederate flag; to add insult to injury, the statement “Never Apologize For Being Right!” was emblazoned across the front.
F.A.I.L.
Fall and Invite Loss. The best piece of advice I never got was to fail and to fail constantly. Lessons I could’ve learned in my adolescence evaded me because I wanted to stay in my shell. I didn’t go through the same experiences as my peers because I was so shy and preferred to stay out of things and be more of an observer. While my friends had jobs in high school and were able to buy the clothes they wanted to wear, which our parents couldn’t afford, I was constantly told I didn’t have to work.
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