BOOM!
Humor Me…
A Matter of Interpretation
By Mike Olszewski
It takes a lot to make me laugh. I see humor in jokes and situations, but if it draws a smile, I’m likely to say something is clever rather than funny. Besides, not everyone has the same sense of humor.
I’ve attended shows by Amy Sedaris, Chris Elliott and Gilbert Gottfried that had me in stitches and had my wife looking at me with concern. I enjoy the absurd stuff; she’s more of a traditional sitcom person. With that in mind, here are my humor rules:
Rule No. 1 – Humor is subjective. We’ll sometimes hear another person say, “Hey, funny story…” and there’s a good chance it’s not, or it’s funny only to them, and they laugh when telling it. My likely response is, “I thought you said it was funny.” This usually gets a bigger laugh than the original anecdote, sadly, at the storyteller’s expense. Maybe I should start with, “I apologize in advance.”
Rule No. 2 – Humor should be obvious. If you’re looking for a laugh, “show the funny.” If you have to explain it, it’s not funny.
Rule No. 3 – Humor can be regional and doesn’t always age well. You’ll find plenty of clips online of Cleveland TV icons Ghoulardi, Superhost and Big Chuck, and Hoolihan and Lil’John. Friends from other parts of the country won’t think they’re as funny as we did when we saw them on TV. As the years pass, we see the humor doesn’t hold up.
Rule No. 4 – The closer to reality, the funnier it is. We laugh at stuff we can relate to. That brings us back to Big Chuck Schodowski (like Ernie Anderson’s Ghoulardi), who poked good-natured fun at Cleveland’s ethnic communities. Chuck impersonated a Polish guy with a cigar and striped sweater that zipped down the front. He said that, back in the ‘70s, he was doing a skit dressed like that in a Polish neighborhood with Bob “Hoolihan” Wells. Folks easily recognized “Hoolihan the weatherman.” They thought Chuck was just part of the neighborhood. By the way, I wore that same striped sweater in junior high.
One more thing about reality and humor. Years ago, when I was filling in on mornings at WMMS, comedians appearing at local clubs often stopped in on Friday mornings to promote their acts. One day, veteran comic John Byner stopped in. Byner was known for his impressions and when we went to commercials, he told the story of the night Ed Sullivan fired comedian Jackie Mason, supposedly for making an obscene gesture on air.
Byner, booked for the same show, was outside Mason’s dressing room when Sullivan laid into him. Impersonating both Sullivan and Mason, the story and impersonations were so funny that everyone except Byner was on the floor screaming with laughter. I saw Jeff Kinzbach (the WMMS host) reach up from the floor and hit a button to play additional commercials because we were out of breath from laughter. A great comedian can hold an audience, even with only a handful of people there.
Boomer Trivia: Last issue, I asked which Beatle’s wife had a connection to the Cleveland Public Library. If you have been to the downtown branch’s Eastman Reading Garden, you’d see it was named after Linda Eastman McCartney’s aunt (also named Linda) who was once the head librarian there. For next time, which vintage TV series had the Central City Bijou Theater that usually showed “The Monster That Devoured Cleveland”?
