My First Fan

I’m going to preface this by saying I don’t think I’m that funny. Yes, I want to write comedy television/movies, but that’s much more of knowing what’s funny rather than being funny yourself. I have no desire to be a stand up comedian. I’ve thought about it before, but the only bit I can come up with is this thing about when you get on a bus how the first person who gets into one of the pairs of seats automatically feels like they own that set of seats even though everyone else paid the same price for them. It would have a half chuckle at best.

Anyways, this morning I tweeted the following: “Going to a farm this morning. Bringing my red and white plaid shirt and recreational drugs to turn it into another type of pharm.”

A few hours ago I received  this e-mail, from someone with the alias ‘Dipper Canter’:

I have read your blog, your twitter, your statuses…….

The “Pharm” party one prompted this letter………

You need to work more on your humor. A lot of things you write about are REALLY boring and while your “jokes” are “clever’ they are not really that funny………..

We are good friends in real life but I felt weird saying it to you directly. You could be a good writer but sometimes it is really boring. Please work on it or don’t post stuff.

Dipper

The only reason I tweeted this was because I had mentioned it to someone here with me in London when I thought of it, and he said it was the funniest thing I had said the whole trip. I wasn’t in love with it, but it did have a good pun, which I always enjoy, so I posted it. As a quick explanation, people will take pills at locations and call it pharming (like pharmacy and farming). I’ve never done any drugs before, I just was making a joke.

Never have I thought people would get offended by my humor, not because of it’s offensive content, but because it’s not funny. If someone is getting pissed at me because I am not funny enough for them, they shouldn’t be looking at me for humorous writing. My writing is sometimes humorous, but mostly it’s self-deprecating and dry. If you want humorous writing check out anything by Paul Feig or Augusten Burroughs.

As far as being bored by my writing, you’re not required to read what I write. At the end of the day, I really enjoy writing. I hated it until Junior year of high school when I wrote my first script. Then I started reading a lot. The combination of these two things got me so interested in characters and story that I haven’t looked back since. It’s really only been a few years that I’ve been seriously writing, and I don’t expect to be incredible at it, and while it’s kind of that pipedream of what I’d ultimately want to do, there are still many other things I’m interested in and will probably be doing in my life. Regardless of what I do though, writing is going to continuously be a part of my life now.

In no way am I ever going to be turned off my one person having a negative opinion to my writing and my writing style. In general, I’m a pretty weird guy and have a weird sense of humor, so in no way do I think what I write appeals to everyone, but I have had people tell me they like it. So I publish things for them. If you’re bored by my writing then just stop reading. No one is forcing you to.

The thing I laughed hardest to in this e-mail was that this person considered him or herself a ‘good friend in real life.’ At the end of the day, I want to be better at everything I do, especially writing and comedic writing. People who know me well know this. I often will run jokes I think of by my friends to ask them for their opinions. I do the same with ideas for blog articles. A lot of times people will say ‘I don’t really get it’ or ‘it could be better’ and I love that. I’d much rather know what doesn’t work right away then spend a bunch of time working on something that people won’t enjoy. I’d like to think my close friends know they can tell me whatever without me getting upset or offended.

If you’re going to send me an anonymous e-mail, at least tell me what doesn’t work. Or even some examples of things that you liked so I can look at those some more. Really though, I’m probably not going to pay much attention to advice from someone who won’t even say who they are.

What are your thoughts blog readers? What are things you like? What could you have less of? I’ll take any and all suggestions, although it’s going to be hard for me to not make bad puns. You’ll have to live with me making those forever.

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