It sucks the funny out of any comedic moment to sit down and thoroughly dissect it, but I can’t help ruminating on my sense of humour and where it came from.
This latest examination was triggered by watching the first season of “The IT Crowd” again. There is something about the British sitcom that really makes me laugh, especially the more absurd ones. My childhood memories are full of these sitcoms, like “Some Mothers do have’em” or “On The Buses”. The one that I watched as a boy and still find delightful is “Are You Being Served?” and it set down a clear pattern of the kind of show that really gets me laughing.
It’s a little strange that my mother was so fond of these shows, but I guess you don’t have to be English to enjoy the shows (obviously). I have to remember those times, sitting in front of the tv watching the sitcoms on TVO with the Lottario draw in between shows, as happy time that I spent with my mother. I tend to draw a blank when I try to think of any childhood memory with anything other than ambivalence, so this can serve me as a sign that I didn’t totally sleepwalk through my early years.
I’m not going so far as to say that these early shows created my sense of humour, but I think I was drawn to them because they were the right fit for me. I shy away from comedy writing (for some reason) but when I return to it, I”m bound to return to the zany situations and character types that send me into fits.
Chris Loblaw, Author 