The Funny in the Ordinary
is the hardest kind to find—
it requires you to slow down
and to pay a different kind
of attention to the details
of a weekday afternoon,
and find the bit that’s been hiding
in the ordinary room.
is the hardest kind to find—
it requires you to slow down
and to pay a different kind
of attention to the details
of a weekday afternoon,
and find the bit that’s been hiding
in the ordinary room.
The extraordinary is easy.
Anyone can do the disaster.
But the funny in a trip to get your mail?
That territory is vaster,
because everyone has been there,
everyone has felt
the particular indignity
of the ordinary dealt.
I spent a week observing
how I fill a water glass—
the amount of consideration
in the pour and in the past
of pouring water glasses
in my unremarkable life
and found enough material
to cut through ordinary life.
The funny in the ordinary
is the gift of paying attention,
of treating the mundane
with genuine intention:
the way you hold a pen,
the way you check your phone at night,
is funnier than anything
explosive in plain sight.
Because everyone who hears it
says I know exactly that—
the funny in the ordinary,
where the real comedy sat.