It was long ago said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I would say the same thing about comedy. One man’s comedic trash is another’s treasure. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Seinfeld. Jim Carrey. The Big Bang Theory. Kevin Hart. I Love Lucy. The Hangover. Woody Allen. Momma’s Family. The Naked Gun. Eddie Murphy. Bridesmaids.
Some of those names bring a sparkle to your eyes (The Naken Gun!), while others bring a groan to your gut (Woody Allen).
Let’s even take this guy…
Many consider Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, to be a comedic masterpiece, while others would compare it to a visit to the dentist’s chair. I can see both sides of the coin. People–to be specific, strictly male people–kept telling me how great it was. The first time I saw it, I would have given it 4 ‘blehs’. Very disappointing. But when I later watched small and large parts of it on a few of those 8 million times that its been re-run on TV, I found that, like wine, this comedy gets much better with age.
The product of great comedy, is great laughter, and for my whole life, I have been surrounded by a couple of great gigglers. My beautiful wife is a vibrant laugher. She not only has great volume, but also puts some serious shoulder action into her chuckles. And fortunately, she deeply appreciates my dry, cheesy wit.
Well, most of the time.
My mother should be in the laughing Hall of Fame.
She whoops, cackles, and hollers at even the slightest hint of humor. She could have made some big bucks being a professional laugher in one of those studio audiences. Back in 1970, their must have been some all-time comedy classics on the big and small screens while I was taking up my initial nine-month internship with her. My theory is that she must have been spilling out so much laughter that none of it traveled down her umbilical cord to me. Why do I say that?
Because I have to come clean with a deep, dark secret…
I really don’t have much of a laugh.
Let me clarify. I LOVE humor. I am not one to hold back on a wise crack. I could be an All-Pro in the use of sarcasm. I savor great TV and movie comedy. I shower my three children with charming, witty quips.
PARDON THE INTERRUPTION. This just in from ‘FOX NEWS: FAIR AND BALANCED’.
The Aljancic children want to share their side to the story. They say, “Dad annoys us all the time with his stupid, cheesy jokes! And he especially embarrasses us around our friends!”
BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG…
I even do some imitations. (Pee-Wee Herman and Ronald Reagan are my specialties). And if you have read any of my blogs, you can see that I go out of my way to be funny.
Well, at least TRY to be funny.
But I just don’t have much of a laugh. I smile, and maybe snort a little, but that is usually about it. I have even worked on a fake laugh. I haven’t quite nailed down the best vowel to use…
HA-HA-HA?
HE-HE-HE?
HO-HO-HO?
WHO-WHO-WHO?
Maybe even one loud ‘HAH!’, kinda like this guy…
Actually, my natural laugh, when it occasionally sneaks its head out of its shell, is more of a raspy, quiet ‘HEH-HEH-HEH’. HEH’s get drowned out by all those other volume-hogging comedy cackles.
So I want to apologize to all of my friends, family, and aqcuaintances through the years that I simply smiled at instead of giving a solid chuckle of approval . You are FUNNY. REALLY FUNNY! I’m just come from the Island of Misfit Toys.
I feel much better now.
As you can see, It takes a lot to squeeze some of those HEHs out of my tummy. One is a comedian that I re-discovered a couple of years ago when I DVR’d one of his comedy specials on a Dish free movie weekend. I remembered him from the 1990s when he was on Saturday Night Life for a few years playing this character…
I wasn’t much of a fan of ‘Goat Boy’.
You might also remember him starring along side Dave Chappelle in this not-quite Academy Award winning flick…
When I finally got around to watching his special on my DVR list,
I was amazed how HILARIOUS Jim Breuer was. And his show wasn’t like many typical comedians. He is a great physical comedian that has voices, sound effects, and mannerisms galore. And he pretty much told about his life, which consisted of three key ingredients:
1. His 40-something-year-old body starting to break down
2. Trying to raise three girls
3. Trying to raise three girls while not driving his wife totally crazy.
Any of you that are familiar with any or all of those three scenarios know that they are comedic goldmines…
when they are about other families, of course.
Many comedians go for cheap laughs simply by just saying vulgur stuff. Kinda reminds me of my junior high days when any pimple-faced kid could get a rise out of his buddies by saying a dirty word. Not a lot of artistic creativity usually involved in playing the raunch card.
The impressive thing about Breuer is that his act is completely clean (he talks about switching to a clean act in this Modesto Bee article). There’s plenty of family messes to supply his shows. In one of my favorite Breuer bits, he talks about why mothers need their sleep. Click on that link for four very well spent minutes of your day!
The great thing about his clean family act is that I have been able to share it with my own family. The Aljancic fivesome has being rolling in laughter in our living room while watching several of his recent specials together. My oldest son knows his one show word for word.
A few weeks ago, while flipping through the T-R’s sister paper, The Canton Repository, I saw that Jim was coming to Cleveland the following weekend. I quickly bought up two tickets, and soon enough, Beth and I headed up to the big city. Jim did not disappoint. From the tears running down her eyes, I don’t think Beth was offended when he compared his sleepy wife to a grizzly bear in the morning.
Side note—my Beth is a cuddly teddy bear in the morning. Just ask our three kids.
After the show, we were lucky enough to get to meet Jim. Not only did we get to snap a picture with him…
He even was gracious enough to talk to us for a little bit. After thanking him for providing a show that our family could bond with, I asked him about my favorite bit, which is about his trip with his girls to Great Adventure Safari Park. (I could only find an audio clip). He not only answered my question, but told us, to his great disappointment, that the park had closed! He then told us about a similar park open in Florida.
Thanks, again, Jim, for the great night out with my beautiful wife. And thank you for becoming a great Aljancic family tradition.
With all of this comedy in mind, I decided to do a couple of comedy countdowns. After consulting my inner circle of comedy experts, I will soon be posting…
MAC’S TOP 20 TELEVISION SIT-COMS OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned!
And send me any of your own suggestions in the comments or by contacting me below. My list can be influenced!
email the author: macaljancic@yahoo.com
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