I haven’t been this riled up since the whole Team Edward / Team Jakob battle.  Except this time, everyone is wearing a shirt and nothing is sparkling.

Except the lofty, copper  locks of Coco.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to acknowledge the travesty that is befalling the towering, pasty-skinned, red-haired comedian we all know and love at the hands of the scrambling, delusional National Broadcasting Company.

So, uh, yeah.  I acknowledged it.  I don’t know that I have anything particularly insightful to say about the situation that anyone with a robust and respectable sense of humor doesn’t already know.  And by robust and respectable sense of humor, I mean humans that recognize the hopeless banality and blatant laziness of Jay Leno’s jokes on television.  (Hold on, I feel a snotty, critical tangent coming on…wait, no, no, yep, there it is.)

In the unfortunate moments I’m caught watching Leno, I’m overcome with the sense that his jokes aren’t written so much as generated by a poorly designed computer program implemented by a programmer who learned the mechanics of comedy in a poorly written manual by an author who learned comedy in a second language.  Yeah, that’s right.  My metaphors are Meta-META.  Leno’s monologue jokes are painfully obvious, weak in delivery, void of insight, and cater to everything that is mediocre in America.  And the sketches or gimmicks that even remotely approach entertainment (”Jaywalking” and Headlines) are completely unrelated to Jay Leno’s talent or sensibilities as a comic.  They are simply ”found” comedy – they rely entirely on someone else doing all the work and providing all the laughter.

That’s why it’s such a ridiculous shame to see a talented, hard-working comedian asked to grab his ankles and grin by a clueless group of corporate executives who misguidedly believe they can turn back time and restore everything to some past utopic ratings level with sad, sorry mediocrity.  I hope Conan finds his rightful place (with Andy!) with people who value his comedic contributions.  And would it be too much to ask of karma that his show totally kick Leno’s ass across the equally misguided Nielsen ratings board.

Long live Conan!

Down with NBC!

Now let’s form a group and do something about it!  These pitchforks and torches aren’t going to mob themselves.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the vast majority of synonyms for comic entertainers carry negative connotations.  If you think of the ways you can insult a person without plunging into that ever-satisfying pool that is profanity, a good proportion of them relate to words describing a court jester or a comedian.  Fool.  Buffoon.  Simpleton.  Clown. 

I may be so totally off base that I’m wandering lost deep in the grassy solitude of the outfield, but it doesn’t seem all that farfetched to think that these words were intentionally given dismissive and demeaning characterizations because of the role jesters, particularly court jesters of Old Europe, played in monarch-ruled societies.  The court jester was given the lofty task of entertaining the king and his court, but in this oftentimes dangerous occupation lies the essence of the fool’s role: to tell the truth.  More than anyone else, the jester was given license to mock the king, vent the frustrations of the people, and so on, under the guise of comedy. 

The jester was unique in that he was allowed to speak truth to power.  And a successful jester could make himself virtually immune to the taunts, threats, and insults from powerful people that might not otherwise appreciate the humor directed towards them as much as their superior, the king.  In this respect, I wonder how much titles pertaining to or related to jesters and comedians were purposefully cultivated to take on less agreeable meanings to keep the power of comedy in check.

For instance, it is remarkably easy to see the same dismissal today whenever a comedian or satirist like Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert make an honest, valuable assessment or criticism in their comedy that is easily brushed off by the offending party as nonsense spoken by “some comedian” or ”just a comedian.”  Much the same way that many voters and politicians were quick to evaluate Senator Al Franken’s potential based on his history as a comedian.

Perhaps our society is due for a history lesson to broaden its awareness of what comedy truly does and is capable of. 

Just because the delivery isn’t serious, doesn’t mean there isn’t some serious truth in the message.

We should stop thinking about laughter as the best medicine and more along the lines of laughter as the best daily vitamin. 

(I know.  Not only is this a phenomenal quote I just invented, it’s relatively pithy as well.  This is so brilliant it could easily end up in one of any number of places in a Reader’s Digest.  Although, I do recall an article from the same publication when I last had to move my bowels at my mother’s house that suggested multivitamins may be essentially worthless.  Let’s pretend, however, that multivitamins are still in good standing.  It reinforces the quote by sticking to the whole “medical treatment” theme.)

Instead of suggesting that laughter can best be served by employing it in times of want or need (i.e., after the fact), I’d rather we think of laughter as an essential component to a healthy diet.  Intake frequently, copiously, and call me in the morning to share the buoyancy.