Perspective. Point of view. “From where I’m standing…” All of these symbolize an egocentric view of the world. I mean. How else can you see it? ‘Walk a mile in my shoes…” Well, I can’t. I can attempt to empathize or understand but I can’t physically see it or experience the world any other way than the way I experience it.
The thing about comedy- in my mind– is that it takes a common experience and looks at the uncommon part of it- that turns out to be common, after all.
Huh?
Let me try again with an example. The above quote is from a very funny sketch performed by David Mitchell and Robert Webb on their show “That Mitchell and Webb Look.” It occurs in a conversation- absurd to us now- between two nazi soldiers in a foxhole. They go over the symbology of their uniforms “a skull and crossbones certainly seems like it belongs to a baddie…” and are dumbfounded that they- innocent soldiers that they are- are the baddies. What makes it funny is the destruction of the self delusion.
The change in perspective.
What prompted this line of thinking were two parallel musings: 1. heading into any encounter with another human being with an expectation of result is ludicrous and 2. a line from ‘Real Genius’.
If you aren’t familiar with ‘Real Genius’ well…you should be. Truthfully it is a typical 1980s coming of age movie starring Val Kilmer as…you guessed it…a real genius. A shocking discovery about how his work with lasers is being used by the military (prior to the movie’s events) has led him to be irreverent and non-conformist. He is the master of the quick quip and the throwaway line. While touring a high tech company for employment after college he is wearing an Aloha shirt, board shorts and one of those silly head gear toys with eyes attached to springs that bobble to and fro as he moves. The head scientist conducting the tour- obviously perturbed and with a non-descript European accent asks the reasonable question, “Why do you wear that toy on your head?” The response? “Because if I wear it anywhere else it chafes!”
Not to dissect humor but…what makes that funny isn’t truthfulness of the answer (although it may well be true) but the change in perspective and outcome. A reason for the wearing of the toy (I want to prove my irreverence, I’m a bad-boy of science, you only rent my intellect, you don’t own it…one or any of the above) isn’t given the way one might expect. Another, equally true and logical, answer is given. The zig when a zag is expected.
So…to bring this together. When I ask someone what they think about something I have two choices with the answer- whatever it is. 1. Nod my head and take joy in the unexpected (even if I did expect that response) or 2. Be put out or off by how their response didn’t jibe with what I expected. In other words, I create the means of my own disappointment. All they are doing is reacting/responding to me. The joy should be in the discovery of what is…not discouragement in what isn’t. That’s truthfully how each moment can be- and is- enjoyed. Don’t expect. Allow space for the world.
If you wear it anyway else it will chafe.
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