“I read a thing that actually speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number 1 fear, of the average person. I found that amazing. Number 2 was death! Number 2! That means, to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy. That’s what that means.”
These words reverberated between the walls of Broadhust Theatre for the last time, tickling the funny bones of thousands. So little needs to be said about the scrutiny and offence comedy brings since time immemorial. However, somehow a man in his wrong end of 40’s on stage of Broadhust has mysteriously rendered his comedy immune to the scrutiny and offence.
Stage was set and thousands gathered at Broadhust for what was to be a spectacle, but went on to be (in my opinion) the greatest standup comedy show of all time. This enigma I’m talking about is Jerry Seinfeld. A stand-up comedian and the richest celebrity in the world. Popular for being the co-creator and lead actor in the sitcom called “Seinfeld”, a show that has been an inspiration for many, and still grossing millions in the re-runs.
All the facts and figures aside, the talking point, really here is the style of Jerry’s comedy. Easy on the ears, palatable, amusing and blithesome comedy is exactly what one needs on a daily basis.
Here is his take on developers of seedless watermelons:
Very impressed with that seedless watermelon development. That was quite an accomplishment. Seedless watermelon! They did it! It’s done. We have it now. What are they planting to grow the seedless watermelon with, I wonder… Water? I mean, it’s gotta be something. They haven’t got the melons humping now, have they?
What kind of scientists do this kind of work, anyway? You know, other scientists working on AIDS, cancer, heart disease, these guys are going “No, I wanna focus more on… melon. I think that’s the important area. Sure, thousands are dying needlessly, but this… that’s gotta stop! Have you ever tried and pick a wet one off the floor? It’s almost impossible”.
And then his take on air hostess closing the first class curtain:
“Then she’s gotta close that first class curtain, you know. Before it takes off, and they always give you that little look too “Maybe if you’d worked a little harder… I wouldn’t have to do this”.
*imitates curtain being closed* vshhhhh.”
I beg your attention to style of comedy, which is not assertive, abusive or naive in any way. The comedy is not blatantly in-your-face; it’s just hovering around in the air for anyone to heed to it. As easy as it may seem on the ears you will find yourself rolling on floor.
A last excerpt to reinforce his way of driving the point home and this time it’s about McDonald’s:
Why is McDonald’s still counting? How insecure is this company? Forty million, eighty jillion, billion, zillion, killion, tillion. Is anyone really impressed anymore? “Oh, 89 billion sold! Alright, I’ll have one. I’m satisfied”. Who cares? I would love to meet the chairman of the board of McDonald’s, to just say to him, “Look, we all get it, okay? You’ve sold a lot of hamburgers. Whatever the hell the number is. Just put a sign ‘McDonald’s – we’re doing very well.’ We are tired of hearing about every God-damn one of them”.
What is their ultimate goal, to have cows just surrendering voluntarily or something? Showing up at the door, “We’d like to turn ourselves in, we see the sign. We realize we have very little chance out there. We’d like to be a Happy Meal, if that’s at all possible.”
In the plethora of different genres of comedy Jerry’s subtle unimposing, amicable observational comedy certainly makes you wonder as to why comedians are going around abusing, swearing, offending, being racist just to create a spark of laughter in the audience when they can perfectly make comedy with any of those above mentioned actions.
This is just a glimpse of the big picture and, I believe that lot of things will change once you watch all his shows. I’m seeing a lot of things in a view of it being potential subject of humor and that has made all the difference.
”You know you’re getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It’s like, ‘See if you can blow this out.” – Jerry Seinfeld
(Picture Credits – Mentioned in Images)
Written by Bharath Surendra
