Physical Comedy 101

Just wondering, Lord,

Which of these stories is funnier?

Story One: The NRC proposed yesterday to slap Entergy today with a $650,000 fine "for its continuing failure to comply with NRC orders to fully implement a new emergency notification system (ENS) with back-up power" at Indian Point. That, according to the New York Times, is 10 times the normal fine. Entergy's response: "Entergy regrets the problems that repeatedly have arisen with the new, state-of-the-art alert system it has been designing, installing and testing for communities around the Indian Point Energy Center. We apologize to our neighbors in those communities for the delays that have occurred in making this new system operable…."

Story Two: In his first day on the job, Colorado State Representative Douglas Bruce stomped down on the knee of a photographer when the photographer took his picture during the House prayer. In a 62-1 vote, his colleagues censured him. In a post on his website in which he refused to apologize for his actions, he explained, "…Had the photographer been standing, I would have tapped his shoulder with my index finger. In modern society, that method of emphasis is not considered an assault."

These are two stories of behavior that might be considered unethical, of censure, and of response to censure. The second one is funnier because someone got hurt, though not terribly hurt, and physical contact involving indignity and pain can be funny. Just ask Laurel and Hardy if you don't believe me. Also it's funny that the state representative didn't apologize and didn't see the need to.

Whereas, in the first story, at least Entergy apologized, which was kind of a nice gesture. Also, no one got hurt, so it couldn't be funny in a physical comedy sort of way. And, come to think of it, if the backup sirens had been needed and they hadn't worked, the physical comedy would have been about either painful death that was relatively quick or cancer death down the line. This is for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people. And that's not funny.

Thanks for helping me think this through, Lord. You may not understand why I asked in the first place. See, it's part of a PR guy's job to be erudite and sophisticated and understand humor. And I think I understand humor.

Amen,

Fake-Rob