Len, I hope you'll be auctioning off the rights to that story in the Thriller forum.

Emma

Emma,

When all this is happening to the son of a dear friend then making money out of someone's misfortune is certainly not uppermost in my mind.

One day in the future all this may make a plot for a good historical novel... but I guess their troubles are so common in every age.

Two lessons I learn from all this - the first is to keep your hand away from the knee of your agent and the second strengthens my belief that most men are stupid, short-sighted and easy prey for a scheming woman.

There is a lot of sadness there at the moment and quite a few lives are being affected.

Len

...that most men are stupid, short-sighted and easy prey for a scheming woman.

When it comes to sex, I agree wholeheartedly, and she doesn't even have to be scheming! But then. these days I think most women are the same....

Oh Hi Aruna,

I hope your 'agent bothers' are now behind you.

I did read some while ago that a man thinks of sex every 7 seconds. If that is so I wonder if a man thought of sex continuously for a period of 30 minutes, would his thoughts then take a rest, free of the curse that plagues men and makes them such vulnerable, stupid beings?

Len

Len, sorry if my remark was unwarrantably frivolous. I'm afraid my novelist's habit of regarding everything in life as potential material got the better of me.

Emma

I did read some while ago that a man thinks of sex every 7 seconds

Makes me wonder how men ever get any writing done

Andrea

Makes me wonder how men ever get any writing done

In six second bouts.

Comedy, for the most part, is focussed on the misery of others. Just take a look at Victor Meldrew, Basil Fawlty or Father Ted - most episodes of each can be subtitled, "This Day Just Can't Get Any Worse". I'm trying not to be callous by pointing out the irony of the story, but I used to have a friend who was a stand up comic who used to say he wished there was more misery in his life to help his act along. I tried to explain that what you find hilarious one day can be altered dramatically by personal misfortune; suddenly the joke isn't funny any more. It's like when you get dumped by someone you're crazy about - you suddenly realise that every other song on the radio is about splitting up.

Hope your friend (or friend's son) get's back on the horse.

(Just thought of another = poor Rob Brydon in "The Worst Week of My Life" - that was so uncomfortable that it must have been inspired by actual events.)

Best,

Colin M

<Added>

of course, I take the comment about irony back if he writes for the Chuckle Brothers.

aruna,

Still chuckling

Andrea

Colin-M,

You are so right. Do you ever watch 'You've been framed', I think it's called, where people send in their video material?

Piped laughter reminds us that all these are supposed to be funny but so many are of incidents where the subject of the video invariably has an accident of some sort.

All this pain and injury. However the interesting factor is that these are sent in by members of the public who obviously think that some little child on his runaway threewheeler smashing hard into the back of a parked car is funny or when the idiot with a sledgehammer demolishing a wall had the whole thing collapse onto his head... so hilarious!

Len

The Germans have a great word for it: Schadenfreude - humour at others' misfortune.

I did read some while ago that a man thinks of sex every 7 seconds

There's a break inbetween??? Who knew?

JB

Not me

Andrea

Colin-M, You are so right. Do you ever watch 'You've been framed', I think it's called, where people send in their video material? Piped laughter reminds us that all these are supposed to be funny but so many are of incidents where the subject of the video invariably has an accident of some sort. All this pain and injury. However the interesting factor is that these are sent in by members of the public who obviously think that some little child on his runaway threewheeler smashing hard into the back of a parked car is funny or when the idiot with a sledgehammer demolishing a wall had the whole thing collapse onto his head... so hilarious! Len

Well. Yes and no. Comedy, as I've mentioned elsewhere, is just about my favourite genre. I've spent the last couple of days getting my submission in to the BBC's Show Me The Funny contest. (Sits back and awaits fame and fortune on BBC gravy train...)

Now I love the "sophisticated wit" of the usual suspects, Stephen Fry, Oscar Wilde, PG Wodehouse, Alan Bennett, Woody Allen, Groucho Marx etc etc etc. The glittering wordplay of your typical Noel Coward stage piece is as meat and drink to me. And I'm constantly amazed by the quality of great sitcoms that the UK keeps producing year after year: Extras, League of Gentlemen, Peep Show, Alan Partridge etc.

But DESPITE ALL THAT the slapstick of a man being hit by a plank will always be viscerally, gut-reaction funny if it's done right. (Interestingly, this was the origin of the term "slap-stick" - there actually is a prop with that name which makes a slapping noise when it hits. Much used in pantomime.) It's like verbal comedy speeded up. Setup, anticipation, punchline all in a couple of seconds. Of course, it's all in the execution. The Three Stooges could get hit by a plank much funnier than you or I could. But that's why You've Been Framed gets the viewers. And I've seen plenty of clips on there which have had me howling with laughter. OK, so a lot of them are staged, and badly set-up, and they aren't the funny ones. But give me a showoff parent flying off a skateboard and smashing into a tree and I will laugh every time.

Is it wrong to laugh at someone else's misfortune ? At the time, maybe (although sometimes unavoidable). Long after the event, I don't really think so.



<Added>

Actually I've just remembered one of my favourite You've Been Framed clips. If only all sitcom was this visually inventive:

Scene opens with pretentious long-haired little girl drivelling onto camera about something or other, while drinking a milkshake through a straw.

Bored little brother stands behind, annoyed at not getting attention. He goes over to a birdcage at the back of the room and brings out a budgie.

While girl continues to spout annoying nonsense, he sneaks up behind her and releases the budgie into her hair. It flaps around and claws, wings etc all get tangled in girl's hair.

Girl shrieks in terror, milkshake goes everywhere, all over her face, hair, the panicking flapping budgie etc.

Boy laughs hysterically in triumph.

Clip ends.

Only about 10 seconds long, but a damn sight funnier than an entire series of My Family.

But DESPITE ALL THAT the slapstick of a man being hit by a plank will always be viscerally, gut-reaction funny if it's done right.

I have never, ever been able to laugh at this sort of stuff. or even smile. It just doesn;t strike me as at all funny.