33 Week Challenge Week 6: Failblog

Challenge no. 21: Write a page of news-relevant/topical jokes

Prime Minister Gillard met with New Zealand’s Prime Minister, John Key today, pledging to further strengthen ties with our Trans-Tasman allies. Gillard promised to continue pumping good, Aussie dollars into New Zealand’s tourism industry, in return for 5 more Lord of the Rings films, a pet kiwi for the lodge and a key ring that looks like a sheep.

Mr. Key said that Australia and New Zealand are like ‘family’, which is true - Australia is like a fat, rich, obnoxious aunt who keeps pinching New Zealand’s cheeks and forgetting its name.

Convicted murderer Judy Moran is in trouble after running over a fellow inmate with her wheelchair. This seems to me to be joke in itself, but here’s another:

My inability to complete this week’s challenge. Lol. Haha. Funny.

Yes, that’s right bloggeroos (my new name for you, I like it) – it is now 9:30pm on Monday and I have tried all week to write a page of news-related/topical jokes, and I have failed. However, that doesn’t mean I have to fail at blogging every week in June, I will still succeed at that one. I promise you (maybe).

So, my biggest problem with this week’s challenge is that I haven’t really been that interested in the news lately. I know, for some people this is a mortal sin, and for others it’s completely normal, but I do usually read abc news every day, and have some sort of knowledge of what’s going on in the world around me, but not so much at the moment.

My other big problem is that, when stuck, I decided to watch Paul McDermott’s GNW monologues on youtube for inspiration. All that made me do was go into a spiral of McDermott watching, and self loathing at not being vey good at what the GNW writers are great at. I spent considerable hours this week doing those things and not writing jokes.

My third problem (oh yes, this is just a list of problems. I failed the challenge, did you expect anything less?) was that I kept imagining what this blog would be like when I had finished my brilliant, brilliant jokes. I essentially started writing my triumph before I’d even gotten started. I even, sadly, imagined how I might tweet it to comedians for feedback. And how they would say nice things about me. Yes, it got that bad.

I really did think that the closer I pushed it to the deadline, the more the creative juices would suddenly flow, even though that’s never been the way I have worked well. I was hoping that some sort of brilliance would push its way out of my brain and onto the page before the deadline. It did not.  I hope you are not disappointed in me, bloggeroos, I guess I will defend myself by saying that the whole point is that I might not complete these challenges, and the two rather feeble attempts at jokes above at least count as starting; at giving it a go. I will try again at a later date to finish this challenge.

Meanwhile, my herbs have both bugs and rodents, and are now completely nommed to death. I am going to build some sort of contraption to keep the bigger pests out, and possibly install some poison-tipped spikes. Seriously, those are my herb babies, who do these possums think they are?

Also, I think the secret, biggest reason I didn’t complete the task this week is that my Doctor Who obsession continues without any sign of ceasing. As I write, I am currently half way through the third season and closing.

 Yes, I do always wear this hoodie - what of it?

Nerdblog 2: Comedy

So I am a stand-up comedy nerd... fangirl... perhaps FIEND would be more accurate.

I'm not sure when this started, certainly not as long ago as my harry potter obsession, in fact probably only within the last 2 years. But it started, and now I am obsessed. I love the quickness of it, I love when it goes wrong, I love that people make whole careers out of making others laugh and being stupid. What a great life. My twitter account is devoted almost entirely to following comedians, and then retweeting them, @ replying them, and then dying with excitement when they reply (it happens more often then you would think).

Just yesterday, Josh Thomas walked into my office. That's not that weird, if you know where I work it makes sense and you would think that I would be cool cucumber about it but no. I got very, very star struck. I'm not even really sure why. I do like him, he's very funny - and I am mega into anti-comedy comedy of which he is a king - but he's not one of my absolute favourites. Also, as I said - it shouldn't have been that surprising to see him. But seriously, my stomach did a little turn and I think I may have blushed. LAME. It's ok dear reader, I didn't do anything stupid. While my housemate did suggest I should have "lovehugged" him, I kept my cool... and then promptly left the office before my cool leapt away from me and started moonwalking to Mmbop by Hanson or something.

Musical comedy is the best. The first time I heard the Axis of Awesome was epiphanic. (I know right? I did call it a nerdblog for a reason). That's when I realised I was super mega into musical comedians. Not only are they funny AND musically talented, but they must also create songs that people find catchy but which won't stop being funny each time you hear it. Think about "On a Boat" - now there is a song that is catchy and funny every time. And yet, if a non-musical comedian tells the same joke more than 2 or 3 times it gets pretty unfunny very quickly.

Sammy J (as in... "and Randy") is another of my all time favourite musical comedians. One time, he spoke to me while he was on stage. Life highlight. Right there.

Speaking of meeting comedians, I met Paul McDermott once... who is my favourite celebrity/personality/comedian person EVER. Like EVER. And you know what? AT THE TIME I WASN'T EVEN THAT INTO HIM. Probably for the best, because if I met him now, I would only embarrass myself (more so even then I'm doing now.. if that's possible). I became a MASSIVE fan after getting into The Sideshow, the cancellation of which is one of the greatest tragedies on Australian TV.

If you are not yet aware of the Doug Anthony All Stars then we probably aren't friends. I don't mean this in a threatening way, just in a "we clearly haven't spoken for more than 3 minutes at a time" kinda way. Because that's about how often I mention them. Seriously, if only to make our next meeting more bearable - youtube them. Amazing. I won't link to them because I've gone link crazy in this post and there's too many excellent videos to choose from. That's one thing you can count on Paul McDermott fans for. He can't BLINK on television without it getting put onto youtube and turned into an animated gif within 12 minutes of it going to air.

So.. anyway. Nerdrant over. If you're not into comedy I'm sorry, not for my blog, for your sadness. I hope you're ok.


L