What is Comedy?

What is funniest about the question is that a multitude of books have been written about it, that dissect every type of “Comedy” these authors can define. I sum it up as; it is what makes me laugh. Need there be more discussion?

Today my friend John and I went to a Chinese Restaurant we had never tried out. I warned him that we have never had a positive or negative endorsement for the joint, but we still went.

When we walked in, the place was completely empty and I am not just talking customers, there was no staff. We could have grabbed all the laid out silverware and made off with a ton of moderately clean utensils.

An elderly man appeared and pointed to the booths, so we sat and ordered drinks, then food. They old guy didn’t write down the orders, just kept saying “Yes” as we spoke. The drinks arrived, which were a flat soda and an odd tasting Iced Tea. The food came, not quickly as some places. I hated the Egg Rolls that came out first. Then the main dishes arrived, which were smaller portions than I am used to seeing. I wasn’t upset because I usually get portions that are too large.

The old guy who brought the food and took the order was real slow moving and John compared him to a character Tim Conway played on the Carol Burnett show. Funny comparison.

We finished and went back to work. I noted to myself that I had the song “It’s Raining Men” stuck in my head, which was on the music service at the restaurant. After a trip to the potty, I went by John’s desk and said “We won’t be going back to that place; Not because of the flat soda, slow service or crappy egg rolls. We aren’t going back because I have “It’s raining men” stuck in my head.” Funny too, but not a belly laugh.

John and I went into a meeting and I was seated between John and Phil, which is always a prescription for trouble. I tried the previous joke on Phil after John brought up the Tim Conway comparison. Then at the request of one of the ladies present, Phil and I broke into “It’s raining men”. Funnier.

We were shooed, because the meeting was supposed to start and we were reviewing several system change requests (the system is not important). One request came up that was really old and John commented “Why is this coming up again?” To which I replied, “You are talking about lunch again.” which brought everyone to tears. That is “Comedy”.