THE FOOTNOTES

What’s So Funny

Old time radio comedienne,   Molly McGee,  sometimes remarked to her husband, Fibber McGee,”Taint funny, McGee”.  In recent years,  I might have said that to somebody, myself, because what I deemed to be funny at onetime ain’t funny any more.

 I would venture to assert that I am familiar with as many bad words as anybody,  and might even admit I might have employed one or two myself in my misguided youth.

But that was then, and now is now.

  I find myself impatient with the routine use of profanity  in most situations today and find myself assessing the  user’s linguistic limitations.

   Famous comic, George Carlin, once said he reserved the right to use selected words in certain contexts, and I respect that with that proviso.

  In  an earlier phase of my life, I accumulated 300 comedy albums  none of which contained language you could not have used in church.  They were  based on funny perceptions misperceptions, situations we encounter in our lives.  Standup comics rely on shock to

Get audiences to laugh today. For me to turn them off represents a statement of  philosophy.

  I have tried to promote clean, funny things on Facebook, and in my estimation I am wasting my time.  It is not catching on.  

  I think the language of choice today  reflects a general decline in our culture.