Knee-Slapping, Gut-Busting

The funniest thing I have seen in years was Rob Riggle knocking over chairs. Last night my wife and I went out to see a comedy show. It was part of "SF Sketchfest 2009," a yearly celebration of the kind of people and things that tend to make me laugh. Rob was part of a crew called "Facebook Improv," that included fellow "Daily Show" alum Rob Corddry, and they operated on a very simple premise: Look up an audience member's Facebook page, then with that victim's wholehearted consent proceed to poke merciless fun at the various thoughts, photos, and ideals contained therein.
It is a ridiculous stretch for me to explain exactly why and how this evolved into Rob Riggle knocking over chairs, but I can say that the context was barely important. It was the way that he knocked over chairs. For those of you familiar with his work, you probably have some idea about what struck me so very funny about it. On the drive home, still wiping the happy tears from my eyes, I remembered the word: Animus.
Part of Jung's psychology, animus is a masculine inner personality. It is supposed to be found inside women, just below their feminine persona. But if you let this thing out to live and breathe and stomp around on stage, it would look and sound a lot like Rob Riggle. Or Jackie Gleason. Or John Belushi. Or any number of oversized characters bounding through life in broad stroke caricature ways.
Then I remembered a quote that has been attributed to various clever people, including Wild and Crazy Guy Steve Martin: "Talking about art is like dancing about architecture." That's when I realized that any description of the show I saw would be inadequate, or at the very least, not funny. So instead, I leave you with another quote from Steve, who said, “Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke.” Last night, my wife and I did not puke.