Tragedy or Comedy?

[NoJo]

After watching Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" last night (trite, bad acting, usual Allen stereotypes, but fun), I ask you the question:

Is life tragic, or comic? Is it just you that makes it so?

 

[Guest]

Both, at the same time, depending upon which way we look at things.

Sometimes we laugh together, sometimes we cry together, but often enough some are laughing while others are crying and vice versa.

Oh, and my headache is back, with a vengeance and that isn't amusing in the slightest. I wish I could go back to bed. Perhaps I'll turn the computer off and draw the curtains, then sit in a darkened room.

Anyway, I digress, sorry... For me, most of the time, life is a comedy. It has its tragic moments, though.

 

[shereads]

Hi. What are you doing up so late or so early?

 

[NoJo]

I'm being relativistic. What's your excuse?

 

[shereads]

If you want to see comedy turned into tragedy, rent "Manhattan." What was funny when the movie was new (Woody Allen seducing and dumping a 16-year-old) gives me the creeps now.

I first noticed that the movie had ceased to be a comedy when it came on cable right after the scandal of Allen's marriage to his son's sister. Remember the scene at the end where the girl is crying as he's explaining that they have nothing in common? People in the theater thought it was adorable; the silly girl was learning an important life lesson! What was amusing in mainstream movie theaters then isn't even acceptable as pornography now.

 

[shereads]

Bullets Over Broadway.

Comedy. Good.

 

[Guest]

why cant it be a tragic comedy?
not a huge woody allen fan but sleeper was ok...sorta/kinda

 

[NoJo]

Bullets Over Broadway.

Comedy. Good.

The only reason I posted this thread is that just before the movie started I leaned over to the guy I was with and said

"Quick: Comedy, or serious?"

(I needed to get the overall mood before watching it, but I hate anyone telling me more, it's like knowing the result of a football game. I had abosultely ZERO idea of what the movie was about, other than the fact that it was a Woody Allen movie).

"Comedy."

The very first line of the movie was "What's the difference between comedy and tragedy?"

 

[NoJo]

why cant it be a tragic comedy?
not a huge woody allen fan but sleeper was ok...sorta/kinda

Good moanin, vella. You'd look good crying in a clown suit.

 

[Guest]

Good moanin, vella. You'd look good crying in a clown suit.

and driving a mini-mini cooper with all my buddies jammed in there with me...yes, its been done before but i do it with flair.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Life is a comedy. If you don't laugh at it, you drown in sadness, bitterness and rage. There is too much pointless suffering and injustice that threatens to overwhelm a thinking person - laughing at life lets you control how it affects you. If you let your life turn into a tragedy then all you are is a helpless victim.

(coming from someone who is often told "you make everything into a joke." that's a bad thing?)

 

[NoJo]

Life is a comedy. If you don't laugh at it, you drown in sadness, bitterness and rage. There is too much pointless suffering and injustice that threatens to overwhelm a thinking person - laughing at life lets you control how it affects you. If you let your life turn into a tragedy then all you are is a helpless victim.

(coming from someone who is often told "you make everything into a joke." that's a bad thing?)

The difference for me is distance. Comedy is tragedy through the wrong end of the telescope. Close up, it's tragedy. REALLY close up, you see the blackheads and zits on the face of life, and it becomes comdey again. So, about between about three and thirty feet is tragedy. That's about 1-10 meters. I think I may have overdone the metaphor.

 

[carsonshepherd]

So, about between about three and thirty feet is tragedy. That's about 1-10 meters. I think I may have overdone the metaphor.

You may have.

I'm the opposite though... the closer something is to me, the more I have to laugh at it, or try to, so it can't get to me. The things I can't laugh about, I just write about. to Joe.

 

[Guest]

To paraphrase Heinlein:

Man is the only animal that laughs. Man laughs because it hurts too much to cry. Think about the funniest jokes you ever heard, someone always gets hurt or embarassed. That's what makes them funny.

 

[eric shawn listo]

There is potential comedy in every tragic situation--people laugh at funerals; when someone gets shot in the ass.

There is not tragedy in every comic situation which is what Woody Allen too often tries to prove.

 

[NoJo]

There is potential comedy in every tragic situation--people laugh at funerals; when someone gets shot in the ass.

There is not tragedy in every comic situation which is what Woody Allen too often tries to prove.

I never found someone being shot in the ass funny, per se. I find artfully clumsy physical comedy funny, like Buster Keaton. But someone being shot in the ass reminds me of "World's Funniest Home Videos" -- not even a flicker of a smile from me.

 

[eric shawn listo]

I never found someone being shot in the ass funny, per se. I find artfully clumsy physical comedy funny, like Buster Keaton. But someone being shot in the ass reminds me of "World's Funniest Home Videos" -- not even a flicker of a smile from me.

Ahh, not a Three Stooges fan, I see.

My rather clumsy attempt at humor was meant to indicate location is the key. A pie in the face is funny; same pie in the ass, not so funny.

 

[cloudy]

There are so many times in my life that I just had to either laugh like a loon, or I might have started screaming, and not been able to stop.

I'd rather laugh...it confuses your enemies.

 

[NoJo]

There are so many times in my life that I just had to either laugh like a loon, or I might have started screaming, and not been able to stop.

I'd rather laugh...it confuses your enemies.

In my case it has led to me being punched out on occasion.

 

[eric shawn listo]

The Lakers don't make the playoffs.

Tragedy or comedy.

 

[carsonshepherd]

In my case it has led to me being punched out on occasion.

Or in my case, getting a significant other really, really pissed at me.

 

[NoJo]

Or in my case, getting a significant other really, really pissed at me.

That's what I said.

 

[carsonshepherd]

That's what I said.

There was no punching involving but there was kicking of inanimate objects that later had to be replaced. Why do people react so angrily when you start laughing at them in the middle of an argument? They hate that!

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Life is ironic.

 

[NoJo]

Yeah, but death is moronic, so what the hoo.