I was going through some old writing on my computer tonight when I found what I can say with much gusto and confidence is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever written. A parody sketch of an ethnic based comedy show. I wrote it, it made me laugh and I filed it away with the other weird stuff without showing anybody and forgot all about it.  Tonight was the first time I seen it in over two and a half years.

I remember walking through the west village one night when I came upon a poster advertising a show inside a local theater. The basic premise was that the performer was of one ethnicity and that his wife was of another and they were both in therapy because of it. Why? I never bothered to find out. I had seen a lot of these shows being advertised at the time. I done stand up comedy for over five years and I always tried to avoid talking about being Irish. It’s hard to do when you live abroad but it is possible. I’ve never found ethnic based humor funny to be honest but some people base their whole careers on it. I went home and wrote a sketch taking the piss out of the show and the poster and went to bed. It was ridiculous, stupid and weird in that way that only makes me laugh and laugh alone. That was that. I scratched my itch and the following day I tried to write something proper.    

Upon finding it tonight I wanted to post it for a laugh. Why? Because it’s stupid and silly and it still makes me laugh even though it’s terrible. Then I thought of a piece Stewart Lee performed a year after I wrote my sketch that also cracked me up. It is in my opinion an accurate assessment unfortunately. See below:

Then I remembered how I felt when I saw the poster, I remember that I was pissed off. I had done a show recently that did not go well. I remember being embarrassed simply being a part of it and that a few performers had done well with some lazy, racist and misogynistic material. A few even drew some of the night’s biggest laughs by simply mining material from the stereotypes of their own ethnicity. I wasn’t jealous, just confused. I don’t think I was ever cut out to be a comedian anyway. If you didn’t laugh at the Stewart Lee video you probably would agree.

So the sketch is not a parody I realize but a satire. It still makes me laugh, probably only me though.

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