Me Funny, You Laugh

            After reading the first 100 or so pages to the book Me Funny, I decided that it’s my favorite novel we’ve read thus far in class.

            At one point, there’s a discussion about how the brain needs to interpret jokes. Laughter involves a fast-thinking process of deconstructing what you already know and what is known as commonplace, and then reconstructing it in a shocking new way that creates the response of laughing. Along those same lines, I think laughter is also a liberal reaction. Remember, this is just me. But to find a wide number of things to be comical, you need to keep an open mind about things. If you make a joke about “white trash,” and you are part of what the comedian considers to be white trash, you have to keep an open mind and be able to have the ability to be self-effacing in order to find the joke funny. It requires a liberal, open mind set. If you’re determined to take offense, then you’ve already shut down and you won’t find anything funny.

            Which is just what Thomas said in the movie Smoke Signals: “Know what’s funnier than Indians in movies? Indians watching Indians in movies.” He recognizes the comedic irony taking place and is willing to laugh at himself.

            I find the study of humans a fascinating topic. There are so many people on the earth and so many completely different mindsets that watching people react to any situation is interesting to me. So this novel Me Funny is a great read, as it delves into the ideas and theories behind jokes.          

            And of all things, for something to be funny or thought-provoking to an audience, they have to have a frame of reference for the information being presented. If they don’t understand the information or the context, then the following joke won’t be comical. For example, the last chapter of the book we were assigned over break is a discussion between two Cree women on treadmills. The conversation they are having is so beyond me that I had difficulty understanding or liking it. Maybe they were being funny; maybe they were being highly philosophical. But either way, I wouldn’t know because the things they were referencing were over my head. Just like jokes aren’t funny when a comedian tells jokes about being married to a college campus, since very few people in the audience would be able to relate. At this point, how I see it, a Native comedian has to make blatantly obvious jokes about being Native for a non-Native audience to find it funny. If you make jokes about Occupy Wounded Knee or Occupy Alcatraz, most of the audience won’t laugh: we’ve never been educated about it.

            Now that I’m thinking on it, I’d like to watch more Native comedians at this point. With my slightly expanded frame of reference, it would be interesting to see what else I would understand and find funny.