I thought it would be fun to get some insight into the heads of some of my favorite funny people. When operating on their brains was ruled out as a viable option (what can i say? tough economy.), I decided to subject them to a series of questions about humor, faith, and swordfights. The result is The Ramblings and Such Humor Survey.

Jason Boyett is one of my favorite bloggers of all time for one simple reason: he has embraced my Cannarf Rating System. That’s all it takes to get listed in my will people. I’m easy like that.

In all honesty, I was a huge fan of Jason even before he went Cannarf. He’s consistently funny and insightful, whether it’s at his blog, on his twitter feed, or in the handful of books he’s written. When I came up with the idea of doing the Humor Survey, he was one of the first people I thought of, and I’m happy he obliged.

Here’s Jason…

1. What were a few of the things you remember laughing at the most as a kid?

JB: I watched a lot of TV as a kid, so I remember plenty of sitcoms that made me laugh, including “The Jeffersons,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” and reruns of “Gilligan’s Island.” One of my favorite books ever was Skinnybones, by Barbara Park, which literally had me rolling on the floor on several occasions. I had a lot of those 1970s joke books for kids. (Q: How do you catch a unique rabbit? A: Unique up on it!) And in high school, I discovered Monty Python. Their Search for the Holy Grail movie was, for me, the holy grail of comedy.

2. What about now as an adult?

JB: Steven Wright, Jim Gaffigan, and the late, great Mitch Hedburg never fail to make me laugh. Old episodes of “Friends” still crack me up, even though I know which jokes are coming from half a block away. The Onion is consistently funny. So is David Sedaris and the show “How I Met Your Mother.” And the last Broadway show I really, really enjoyed was “Spamalot” — again, Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Also funny? Auto-Tune the News.

3. Conversely, is there something that lots of other people find humorous that never really makes you laugh?

JB: I don’t know…does Jay Leno count? Dane Cook? Home videos of men getting hit in the naughty bits? I’m not one of those culturally uptight Christians, but other than Chris Rock, I’ve never really gotten into the really abrasive, foul-mouthed comedians. Angry, hateful comedy leaves me cold. Probably because it reminds me of my grandmother. (Rimshot! Kidding!)

4. Do you think Christians are afraid of humor?

JB: Yes, on some levels I think are afraid of humor, especially when it moves beyond the Seinfeld-style observational comedy and becomes attack comedy — making fun of people or people groups or religious ideas. This is because we never know if it fits within the framework of grace and love. It’s a line I personally have to tiptoe around (and up to) in my books, because I very clearly make fun of religious stuff in my Pocket Guide books. I’m careful, though, to make fun of the really foreign or extreme stuff, which (hopefully) keeps me from too much sarcasm and cynicism.

5. How do you think humor can be useful to Christianity?

JB: I’m a firm believer in the adage that anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of. Comedy allows us to look at something familiar, but from an outsider’s perspective, and as Christians I think that’s highly valuable. We need to look at ourselves and our beliefs from outside the bubble. This makes us stronger in the important stuff and helps us see the goofy stuff for what it is. That’s what I try to do in my Pocket Guide books — approach the topic as an insider helping outsiders understand and helping insiders view it in a new way. Humor becomes a useful tool. It’s the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down. (I just now came up with that metaphor completely on my own. It arrived attached to a jaunty melody, though, which is weird.)

6. In your opinion, how is humor different from sarcasm/cynicism?

JB: Well, you can be funny without being sarcastic. And you can be sarcastic without being funny. But sometimes you can combine sarcasm and humor and it’s really powerful. I’ll admit that I tend toward sarcasm in a lot of my humor, but often it’s the self-deprecating kind of sarcasm, or the kind of sarcasm that’s meant to expose something silly (like Christians’ fascination with the apocalypse). I think it’s easy for sarcasm to become mean-spirited or bitter — and I try to stop before I get to that point — but I wouldn’t say that there’s something unchristian about sarcasm. Jesus wasn’t above using sarcasm. Nor was God (see the last few chapters of Job). And Elijah laid an epic smackdown of sarcasm on the prophets of Baal, so there’s definitely a place for it.

I don’t think I answered your question, though. But I don’t care. Let’s just move on to the next one, which is about me.

7. At what point in life did you really start to embrace the idea: “wow, i think I might be funny.”?

JB: It was when you, Bryan, sent me this humor survey. I immediately announced to my wife that I had finally arrived. Actually, I became aware that I was sorta funny in high school. I could be funny as a writer, but also developed it in a verbal, class-jokester sense. Which probably surprised some people, because up to that point I was fairly quiet. I’m sure there were times I became obnoxious and turned into one of those look-at-me, attention-seeking dorks. That’s the danger in being funny: it’s easy to become really annoying. In the business, we call this “Carrot Top Syndrome.”

8. Why do you want to be funny?

JB: What is this, a therapy session? I’ve honestly never asked myself that question before. I guess one reason I want to be funny is because I CAN be. Not everyone has that ability, and I’m a firm believer that you should pursue the things you’re good at. (That’s one of the reasons I’m a writer…it’s because I’m naturally good at writing.) But I also enjoy making people laugh. I enjoy entertaining people. And somewhere deep inside, I know I enjoy the attention. Comedy is one way I meet that ravenous need for approval. The other way is stripping.

9. Have you ever tried to do stand-up?

JB: I’ve never done “official” stand-up, in the sense of “here’s Jason and he’s gonna tell some jokes.” But I’ve hosted local awards shows and talent shows and things like that, which have been a mix of personal stand-up and improv stuff. And I always try to incorporate humor when I speak in front of crowds. I could possibly do stand-up, with a lot of preparation, but it would be hard for me not to steal material. I’d be calculating backstage…Have these people heard of Mitch Hedburg? They’re Baptists, so I’m guessing no. And then I’d talk about Pringles.

10. Do you have a favorite quote (or joke or story) about comedy, humor, and making people laugh?

JB: Yes. It’s this “deep thought” by Jack Handey from Saturday Night Live: “Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.” Actually, my favorite comedy quote is one I’ve already used it in this survey: Anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of. I take faith pretty seriously. Which is why I have a lot of fun at its expense.

—

Thanks for playing along, Jason!

If you want more Jason, you can check out the official pocket guide site, buy the books at Amazon, or get your daily fix of Jason at his blog.

Past Humor Surveys: Chad Gibbs, Susan Isaacs.

Apparently my blogging plan this week is to copy Jason Boyett. Yesterday I built off his Nerd Holiday post. Today, I’m flat-out copying his post on random facebook album covers. I might go for 3 in a row tomorrow, unless he posts pictures of himself in a speedo, in which case I will do my own thing for all of our sakes.

Hopefully you can forgive me for the seeming lack of creativity. I’ve been working hard this week to prepare for the message I spoke at church last night, and so today I’m catching my breath. The message went fairly well last night, by the way. I have a DVD copy of it, so I might put it online at some point so we can all make fun of me when i lose my train of thought near the end and stumble around like a child looking for a light switch in a dark room. Good times.

but anyway, on to the random album cover thing, which you might have seen already on Facebook.

Here are the rules:

1: Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article that comes up is the name of your band.

2: Go to http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very LAST quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3: Go to http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
The third picture in the top row, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4: Use Photoshop or whatever to put it all together.

5: Post it.

————————-

so, this was my album cover, this was my Band Name, and this was my album title.

The finished product? I give you what a burden it was, the debut release from LOST IN THE MALL.

c’mon, admit it. you’d totally buy this thing. Or at least check out their myspace page.

Thanks for the idea, Jason. Much fun.

Yesterday on his blog,  Jason Boyett pointed out that Tuesday was a Nerd Holiday:

What makes today Square Root Day? Well, math-is-hard Barbie, it’s because today’s date is 3.3.09. And three is the square root of nine. Square Root Day — a day in which the month and day are the square roots of the last two digits of the year — only occurs nine times each century. That means it’s a big deal. That means if you don’t celebrate properly today, you’ll have to wait until April 4, 2016, to do this day right.

He also brought up some other Nerd Holidays, like Pi Day:

If so, then you’re certainly looking forward to Pi Day on March 14 (3.14). The best time to celebrate it is at 1:59, because true math nerds know the mathematical constant ? can be rounded to 3.14159 at five decimal places.

I had to laugh because I know all too well that Pi is 3.14159 when rounded out to 5 places. How do I know this? Because I received my Chemical Engineering degree from one of the nerdiest schools on the planet: Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA.

Don’t get me wrong, WPI is a great school. They are ranked in U.S. News Top 100 Universities in the country (currently #71). Dean Kamen, the guy who created the Segway, went to school there (but quit before graduating). Heck, John Geils formed the J Geils Band while attending WPI (you know, “my blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold, my angel is a centerfold”).

I love that I went to WPI. It was where I met a few of my best friends and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the education I received. But, we were (are) nerds. Consider the following:

1. The mascot for our sports team is an engineer. Yup. Our football team is the WPI Engineers. I tried to find it on an athletic uniform, but it looks like they have removed all traces of the mascot name from jerseys. They all just say “WPI” now. Probably a good move. Even the football field, which used to have “Engineers” written in the endzones, is now devoid of the ‘e’ word. But if you read a newspaper write-up, you’ll still see the sports teams referred to as the engineers. (Before you ask, the actual furry mascot was not a nerd running around with a slide rule. It was a Ram named Gompei – pictured on right. Go figure.)

2. While I was there, the guy/girl ratio was about 4:1. And a large majority of the girls there were, ummm, (watch as I tiptoe around this one) let’s say they weren’t torn between engineering school and a modeling contract.  There were some pretty girls, of course (especially you, female WPI alumni reader!), but if I had to generalize – and I do – for the most part the girls were not attractive. Which is fine – we all can’t look like my wife. But still, when you’re a guy in college and there’s 1 girl for every 4 guys on campus, and that girl is probably not great looking, it makes for some interesting scenarios. You’ve heard of “beer goggles” before? Well, we had “WPI goggles”. Anyway, I better stop before I start to sound shallow and mean (too late). Not sure why that made us more nerdy, but trust me, it did.

and last, but certainly not least…

3. THIS is our fight song (which you can hear here):

E to the x
D-Y, D-X
E to the x
D-X.
Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine
3.14159
E-I, Radical, Pi
Fight ‘em, Fight ‘em, WPI!

“Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine”? YUP.

I rest my case.

a few quick hits for your wednesday morning…

+ My friend Jason Boyett recently posted the 14 reasons he’s voting for Obama on his blog. Here’s Part 1 and here’s Part 2. I have friends that I respect on both sides of the political debate right now, which I find fascinating. Jason’s a pretty smart guy, a Christian, and an author of fine books…if you’re in the “How could a pro-life person vote for Obama” camp, check out his thoughts and feel free to disagree.

+ Geof set me straight in the comments of my last post. TiVo and DirecTV are playing nice again. Very cool. Can I wait until late 2009 for them to unveil a new HD DVR? I think so. Though my guess is it will get delayed a bit. Still, this is good news. I’ve gotten used to DirecTV’s DVRs, but compared to the ease and smoothness of a TiVo, it’s not even close. (Speaking of Geof, He’s another Christian who’s voting for Obama…you can read some of his thoughts here and here if you like.)

+ If you or someone you know watches Jon & Kate Plus 8, you might have seen this week’s new episode where Jon and Kate take the kids to visit the Sight & Sound Theater in Strasburg, PA. The theater is about 10 minutes from our house, and is owner by one of Erica’s best friend’s parents, The Eshelmans. Erica’s friend Kristen, the blond haired girl in the episode that escorts the family through the theater, was in our wedding. So basically what I’m trying to say is I am famous.

+ One last thought about blogging. If you don’t have a blog, but you’re thinking about starting one…go for it. Will anyone read it? Yes. I’ll read it. So that’s one person. Will you have enough to write about? Yes, there’s always something to write about. Will you have the time to do it consistently? Probably not. But you make time for the things that are important to you. Many people are intimidated to blog because they feel like their opinion is not important enough. To you, I say, “listen. your opinion is extremely important. just as important as anyone else’s. So give it a shot. Start a blog. Maybe nothing will come of it. But maybe it will be a lot of fun. Maybe you’ll discover some things about yourself that you didn’t know before. You’ll never know until you give it a shot.”