Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture

by Ken Jennings

I like Ken Jennings. Although I didn’t really follow him on Jeopardy, I read his book Brainiac (about trivia competitions), listened to (and frequently mis-recall facts from) Because I Said So!, and I sometimes listen to his podcast Omnibus (with John Roderick).

This book surprised me. I expected a somewhat flat survey of comic history, and there is a bit of that, but it’s in the service of a point, which is right there in the subtitle. Comedy has taken over American culture to a point that’s unhealthy. (As I googled for the book’s cover image, I saw that they have punched up the subtitle for the paperback edition. It now reads, “How Comedy Ruined Everything.” A little funnier!) With a flood of jokes and funny takes constantly streaming in through Twitter, YouTube, or NetFlix specials, our default response to just about anything is a quip or sarcastic comment.

Sometimes that’s fitting, but other times there’s an element of whistling past the graveyard to it. I don’t necessarily agree with Jennings about what graveyard we are whistling past, but he makes a compelling case for adding some earnestness back to our lives and demeanors.

It’s not so much on that point, but here’s an excerpt I liked:

There’s also a point around page 29 where he lists 221 things that he finds funny for their own sake (cranberry bogs, folk dancing, the “Kiss Cam” at sporting events). I was impressed by the list – imagine trying to write that! So I typed it up. And I made a web page that shows you one of the items at random. And here it is:

List of things that are funnier than other things (to Ken Jennings): The Web App!

(or, for those who prefer to read straight text like an ASCII robot from the 50’s, here is the whole list in a text file.)