A story about comedy
Avoid Depression — Write Comedy!
Why writing garbage can be the best medicine
Like many, I’ve suffered from periods of despair, doubt, remorse, regret, desperation, and self-loathing.
Call it depression if you want. That low mist that descends and gradually suffocates you as you plod through the day. Then disappears just as quickly.
I don’t know why it happens. Ask God — or whoever your spiritual representative is. I’ve tried many methods over the years to alleviate it. Ranging from hard drug use to extreme physical endurance. Neither worked that well.
The best I've found is writing comedy.
The Python Years
I grew up watching British TV, which for me meant watching comedy. I didn’t have any interest in soap operas or dramas or documentaries. I didn’t see the point. I just liked comedy.
I remember recording Ghostbusters off the TV on our newly acquired VCR in 1987, and watched it about 50 times. I thought it was hilarious (still do).
After that I recorded everything. All the classic British comedies of the era and before. Plus some of the crap comedies my parents enjoyed, like Ever Decreasing Circles or One Foot in the Grave.
Combined with reading endless sci-fi novels, comedy helped me escape the grinding monotony of growing up in suburban England.
My Incredibly Stupid Amazing Sitcom
I did escape, and in my early 20s wrote a sitcom entitled Crushed Soup, about a heavy metal band trying to make the big time. I sent it to the BBC but they weren’t interested. So I wrote a second series, and sent them that.
They sent it back.
I was a bit disappointed, but not entirely disheartened. I’d enjoyed the process, as at the time I was also in a band, so I used to get the other members to act parts out. Test the lines and the jokes to see if they worked. It was great fun, and while it was a shame no one at the BBC felt the same way, it did spur me on to write more scripts.
One of which was finally accepted. A radio play about the 2006 World Cup called Made in Germany. Here’s a photo of me with the cast.
It wasn’t really a comedy. More a love story! Which is weird as I never planned it that way. It just came out. But perhaps you can’t have comedy without love. Or love without comedy.
Who knows?
Nothing much came of it. I wrote another script about my time at Boarding School for their Friday night play slot, but they didn’t take it. So I ended up working for a local magazine writing boring lifestyle features. Then I moved to France to take a teaching job, and I’m still here, and I still write comedy.
My novel Le Glitch is a comedy, my short stories are comedy, and most of the stuff I write on here is comedy. In fact, it’s damn hard to write anything that isn’t.
I’m not saying all of it is funny. Comedy is notoriously difficult — as I’ve found out — but the intent is there. To amuse others. To amuse myself!
When I was young, my grandmother used to get Reader's Digest every month. I never read the real life stories — BORING! Just skipped to the Laughter is the Best Medicine column that contained half amusing anecdotes sent in by readers
It was pretty bland stuff: Man loses dog, and finds it again. But they made me laugh, and I even sent in one of my own stories. They didn’t publish it, but the process of writing made me feel better after the sudden death of my mother.
Indeed, her death was probably the reason I picked up the pen. Unable to process what had actually happened, I decided to write it down. Not an exact account of her death — that was far too tragic — but a comic version of it. The version I sent to Reader’s Digest.
I realize now why I write comedy, and why I wanted to be a comedy writer growing up. I wanted to forget. I wanted to escape. And forty years later, I’m still doing it.
Thanks for reading. For more mindless comedy, cast your eyes below
