The past couple of days I've been working on some new material.
It's a fun process but it's pretty laborious. I generally start out with some idea or impression that strikes me as absurd. Then I try to scribble down my thoughts on the subject - anything at all that comes into my head. Then, maybe the next day, I sift through the notes looking for themes or ideas I can develop.
Some days I don't feel at all funny and it's like drawing teeth.
Yesterday I was writing about disabled parking spaces. Whenever I go into a car park it's always full - apart from about 90 unused disabled spaces. Why is this? What has Warrington done with it's disabled people?
Or is it forward planning? Are we expecting a massive rise in the number of disabled people over the next few years. Perhaps Warrington is trying to attract disabled people for some reason - maybe it has ambitions to become the Special Olympic Village in 2012.
Any other suggestions welcome.
One thing I found out was that morbidly obese people can get a badge to park in disabled spaces. I guess that's why they make the spaces so wide. And nearer to the shops - less time to get to Greggs.
The difficulty here is that I don't want to sound like I'm having a pop at disabled people. I'm not. It's more of a pensive look at the mysterious world of town planning.
Some other thoughts: it's wrong of me to say that wheelchair users are disabled - they are differently abled. I am able to walk. They are able to park on a double yellow.
Ho hum. It's not easy this, you know.
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4 comments:
I thought the gag about wheelchair users being differently abled because they can park on double yellow lines was funny - I thought the gag about fat people parking spaces wasn't. The difference for me was that the wheelchair gag was a different slant - a different view - and challenged the perception that wheelchair bound people are always disadvantaged in a funny way. Laughter is relief that the shock we are experiencing is not threatening. So you need to surprise people but in a nice way. The fat people gag just poked fun at fat people. It was a shock but I did not find it nice (lots of other people might but I didn't).
Another way to do nice shocks is nasty observations about yourself as in "Obese people can get disabled car stickers. Perhaps if I got fatter I could get a sticker then I wouldn't have so far to walk to Greggs which means I can get fatter - a sort of fatuous circle." Nasty gag turned on yourself makes it nice for me.
What do other Sam Brady fans think?
BTW - one observation you might want is on motorways they have all these overhead electronic signs and speed advice signs that tell you stuff you already know or that is useless. Eg "Fog" which you can either already see so is useless information or you can't so is wrong. "40" when you are stationary in a queue. "Queue ahead" always makes me laugh cos what are you meant to do in response? Levitate?
Guy
Really useful feedback. Thanks.
I think you're right about the distinction between those two jokes.
Also I know what you mean about the motorways signs. Someone is having a laugh aren't they? Watching us on the cctv and putting up messages just to annoy us.
Something else that bugs me is when people leave shopping trolleys in a parking space at the supermarket instead of taking them back to the collection point. Lazy bastards. do you think it would be petty of me to follow one of these people home, find out where they live and then dump a shopping trolley in their driveway?
I agree with Guy about the fat people joke, and really like the way he changed it. I found the double yellow joke funny, and wondered whether it would draw criticism from a tough crowd.
I also liked Guy's suggestions about the motorway signs. The one that I think you should include is the one that says "End", when there's been no indication prior that there was a problem. End of what? Is this some kind of Revelations-style warning of Judgement Day, perhaps? I'm sure you could turn it into something very funny.
Andy.
Thanks Andy.
Good input, much appreciated.
Cheers
Sam
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