What Do You Love, And Why Are You Laughing At It?

There are many things I love, and I find all of them ridiculous.

There are many things I love, and I find all of them ridiculous.

Examples of Things I Love/Find Ridiculous

• Cricket (the sport, not the insect)

• Survivor (the reality television show, not the Eye of the Tiger band)

• Superhero Comics (the genre/medium, not the team of crimefighting humorists)

• Etcetera (the further examples of things I love and find ridiculous (movie franchises, mysteries, mathematics, etc), not the further examples of things I don’t (macrame, motor vehicles, meteorology, etc))

Now, obviously, not all aspects of the things I love are funny. Sometimes there is classic cricket to be consumed, or superb Survivor to see, or excellent etcetera to experience. You don’t have to be funny to be good. But, if forced to choose (eg, by my mother or cinema’s favourite unorthodox life coach, Jigsaw), I will always take the funny option.

Why? Because funny is better than good. (The chart below explains this in greater detail.)

Funny is better than good

To laugh at the things we love is to accept their flaws, quirks, and idiosyncrasies. It’s easy to love something that’s great, that inspires awe. Any idiot can be infatuated with quality. But to love something that’s silly? That’s deeper. Truer. And, yes, funnier.

Sharing that laughter with others can also create a sense of camaraderie and belonging that is richer than non-laughter-based bonds. Because of, y’know, endorphins and shit.

Which brings me to you. Presumably, you have affection for at least one of the things I’ve listed above and that’s how you’ve found yourself here. Now, if you also like laughing at that thing, then this is where I recommend you sign up to get my thoughts delivered straight to your email inbox.

(Note: You can tweak your settings to get only the stuff you’re interested in or if you can’t be bothered with that, you can also just, like, ignore the emails where I talk about a thing I love that you don’t care about. Up to you.)

Here’s what you get…

Free Subscribers

You’ll get regular posts highlighting the absurdities of the things you and I both love.

• If that’s cricket, it’ll be report cards on the first day of every Test (or first match of every limited overs series) I watch

• If it’s Survivor, it’s report cards on each Australian Survivor episode

• If it’s movie franchises, it’s my thoughts on them

• If it’s superhero comics, it’s an issue by issue breakdown of the Justice League of America

• You get the idea. Lots of stuff. But, y’know, not everything

Paid Subscribers

You’ll get all of the above, plus bonuses.

• For cricket, report cards on every day of every Test (and every match of every limited overs series) I watch

• For movie franchises, bonus writing

• Access to everything in the archives (all the free stuff usually disappears behind a paywall after a couple of weeks)

• Free ebooks of all my self-published writing. (Sorry, folks, I don’t get a say about my published writing.)

• Discount codes for my online store

The Venn Diagram Challenge

Most people will only share one of the things I love. That’s cool. We are all snowflakes (in the individualistic sense, rather than the ‘awful people on social media being awful’ sense). If, however, you share two (or more!) of the things I love, then I invite you to take The Venn Diagram Challenge and join me as I explore the various connections between the things I love.

You’ll get everything the Paid Subscribers get. Plus deep dives.

• Deep dives into what makes things funny

• Deep dives into the process of making things funny. (Heck, maybe you can use the things I’ve learned in my long and ghastly life to help make the things you love funnier.)

TIP: Just want to talk about the processes and theory of writing comedy? You can still sign up for The Venn Diagram Challenge even if you only share one thing I love. Your secret is safe with me.