Finally, Something Funny

     I’m so relieved that a few of The 50 Funniest American Writers finally produced something funny.  Honestly, what we’ve read up until now has not been humorous to me.  Some of it has even been disturbing.  After John Hughes’ “Vacation ’58,” I was beginning to think that Andy Borowitz was the Edgar Allan Poe of comedy—strange and only truly appreciated by a select few people. 

     However, things started to look up with Dave Barry’s “Tips for Women: How to Have a Relationship with a Guy.”  This satirical representation of the differences between men and women in relationships was extremely amusing to me.  I was laughing after the first two sentences, which perfectly characterize the tone of this entire story:

“Contrary to what many women believe, it’s fairly easy to develop a long-term, stable, intimate, and mutually fulfilling relationship with a guy.  Of course this guy has to be a Labrador retriever.”

     The entire story between the characters Roger and Elaine was purely hysterical.  A completely ridiculous situation was made from taking an entirely feasible occurrence and amplifying it.  I was laughing throughout the entire thing. 

     What made the story funny was that it made fun of a very realistic thing: women overanalyze situations.  All women are guilty of this.  I’m one of them.  It just seems to be in our nature to think about what something really means.  Why is that?  Because we rarely say what we really ever mean, so we expect others to do the same. 

     But seriously, props to Barry for pointing out this problem.  Why?  Because the sad truth is: this stuff actually happens.  I’m not kidding.  I might have to pull my hair out if I have to listen to any more girls taking things to the level that Barry describes in his short story.  Yes, I’m guilty of overanalyzing things, but I’m not that extreme.

     As a communications major (and just as a person with an actual brain), I believe the only way to have successful and healthy human relationships is to communicate with people.  So yes, I’m still guilty of following my natural inclination to overanalyze situations, but I think the only way to find answers for yourself is to talk to the people in the situation with you after you’ve had time to reflect on it.

     I’m sorry to say that not all women (or even men) think this way.  I’ve known men and women to do the exact things described by Barry.  I’ve sat and listened to them telling me their interpretations of events over and over again of what something means and why they think the other person reacted a certain way.  My response to them is always the same: STOP.

     “Seriously,” I say to them. “Do you want to know why you’re unhappy?!  Because you won’t talk to the other person about it.”  I’ve listened to way too many people put themselves in these situations, and I’m tired of it.

     I responded positively to Barry’s story because I appreciate his message.  By writing a satire, he’s trying to point out the unnecessary ridiculousness we encounter because we don’t communicate effectively.  He’s showing the extremes we’ll reach if we let ourselves continue down this path of conversations with clueless participants.

     So yes, the situations in Barry’s story are absolutely ridiculous and even sound stupid, but they send an important message: watch what you’re doing and how you communicate.  Actually listen to other people’s words and talk to them about your conversations to make sure you really understand what they mean by what they’re saying.  If you don’t, we’re all doomed to lives of confusion and unhappiness.