Comedy is truth. But there is another interesting thing about it.
There is so much of it out there that barely any nuance of modern living has now been left unanalysed by our roving comedians. Barely any quirk of life has been left unploughed or overturned for a laugh of recognition.
Every domestic part of our existence is mapped to energise up the comedian/audience circuit.
And then every retro reference is exploited - every these tune we knew as a kid, every programme we loved.
Who hasn’t had the conversation of your favourite childhood sweets a thousand times? Who remembers Spangles? Yeah? So what? Who cares?
So once your current life is mined and your past life is tilled for referential nuggets, what then?
Well, then you don’t need to live there any more. You don’t need to linger to revisit those areas. And yes it’s a bit of a shame. But then you don’t need to wait a quarter of a century for a favourite tune you had been looking for when Google will give it to you in a quarter of a second.
So where does that leave us to live?
The future. We have to live in the future. At the risk of sounding like a political slogan, Forward Into Possibility. That is the inevitable sequel to the acts of our chucklemakers.
But we are going there anyway, so they are helping us face that future. It may not be as cosy and familiar as the past. Or the present. But it’s coming anyway. And faster than ever.
Realise it. Embrace it and you get the edge you need to survive, perhaps brilliantly.
Comedians are seers, historians, politicians, anarchists and diplomats. They tap into our brains and exploit our primal patterning. But it’s for our own good. It’s the most passive education you will find.
So as Microsoft’s tag line used to tease... Where are you going to go today?
Or tomorrow.
Have a Sherbet Dib-dab and think about it.
