I recognize that my columns typically have approximately the social significance of a Hanson album, but as my last contribution to The Dartmouth for this term, I wanted to touch on a more serious topic: "Our Generation's Sense of Humor," [cue the John Williams-style inspirational music].
In the March 1 edition of The Dartmouth, Jessica Leinwand and Kelly Swartz published a column entitled "Students Uncover Elusive Secret to Sense of Humor at Dartmouth." I felt that this article was well-written, even-handed and showed exemplary restraint except maybe for the part where they described humor writers at Dartmouth as "animosity-ridden social rejects -- disgruntled and depressed malcontents lurking in dark dorm hallways and the basement of Collis." As a humor writer on this campus I must admit that I'm somewhat offended. I mean, I hardly ever do my lurking in the basement of Collis anymore, and though disgruntled and animosity-ridden, I'm not really all that depressed!
But seriously, even though the article as a whole was somewhat difficult to decipher, I wanted to focus on what I felt was the main point of the piece: "Dartmouth needs to get a sense of humor that's more ridiculously random than scathingly cynical or simply making the same jokes over and over and over."
I propose that the authors of Friday's article take a quick survey of some of our generation's favorite comedic voices. Every night, "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central picks apart the hypocrisies and underlying banalities of popular culture. Every week, The Onion provides a scathingly dry look at the mundane details of our daily lives. And every time we are exposed to this humor we laugh loudly. For better or for worse, our generation is cynical. Our generation loves sarcasm. This is why I find it doubtful that "ridiculously random" has enough substance to sustain our comedic cravings. Outrageous reply-to names and people falling on ice are amusing but will never cause the same laughter as a well-crafted Onion headline or a devastatingly accurate "Daily Show" news brief.
However, this doesn't mean that I feel that the comedic dominance of cynicism is acceptable. In fact, I am worried about our sense of humor. I think our generation needs to build up the courage to take more comedic risks. I am tired of aspiring collegiate comedy writers across the country (myself included) equating funny exclusively with Onion-style news parodies, and I worry that our generation's humor is in danger of becoming empty and almost completely devoid of good emotion. This being said, I still don't think that "ridiculously random" is an appropriate solution. We need to seek out actively alternative humor styles that avoid cynicism and still manage to have substance.
To reference my personal experience, I write a regular humor column for "The D," and as a rule I try to choose everyday Dartmouth related subject matter to write about. Why? I'm not really all that angered by Food Court cups, knocking radiators or the gym's entrance policy. But my personal goal is to try to find a comedic voice that can cause someone to laugh sincerely out loud, without resorting to being dry, cynical or random. Though I have found this to be a formidable task, I am inspired by the man who I believe to be the country's funniest humor writer, Dave Barry. This author won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary at a time when his columns dealt mainly with topics such as dating, air travel and job interviews. His writing is hilarious not because he chooses interesting subject matter, but because he takes clichd topics and turns them completely upside down with his absurd exaggerations and quirky observations. His style is so brilliantly effective, it makes Seinfeld seem like a hack.
When you read Dave Barry, you feel good about laughing (and you do laugh a lot), because there is no malice underlying his words: he is the epitome of good-natured comedy and a master of a very difficult craft. I stress the word "difficult" because, as I discovered, being funny in this manner is very, very hard. Which is why when I see authors in "The D," or other publications on campus, trying to find humor in smart, non-sarcastic and non-random ways, I believe they should be encouraged. Our generation needs polished voices to balance the biting sarcasm that overwhelms the comedic landscape today. We need writers who are interested in exploring different humorous techniques. We need writers who are willing to work at perfecting a difficult craft and can resist falling back on simple cynicism or ridiculous randomness. So instead of complaining when we see someone writing about a familiar or seemingly mundane topic, we should encourage them to find original humor in the everyday and hope they can succeed in the goal of making us feel good about laughing again.
In the words of the immortal Dave Barry: "I realize that I'm generalizing here, but as is often the case when I generalize, I don't care." Now if you'll excuse me, I have some serious lurking to do.
