Dry Deadpan Humour

I should clarify something pertaining to my humour, this is something that seems to plague my mother's side of the family quite a bit. At times my humour can get so dry that it seems as though I say something unintelligent or bigoted, when in fact it is sarcastic parody uttered with a deadpan expression.

For example; the other I was at a party with a few acting and film students, and the conversation led somewhere towards gay actors. I decided it would be absolutely hilarious if I sarcastically made a quip about there being no question as to whether an actor was gay. Since I believed all of those present were aware of this fallacy, I assumed it would be apt to parody that humour, so without believing it I uttered it to the crowd.

The joke crashed and burned. Everyone in the room stared at me, and one girl uttered "You're in my domain now buddy", or something along those lines. You know your humour has certainly backfired when not only are you explaining the premise of the joke, but also trying to clear your name of being an idiotic bigot.

When your humour takes on such a depth of complexity, it can be hard to ignore the surface. The other day I was helping out mixing sound on a show at the university, and the lighting was very flat and uninteresting to my eye. Due to my great social awareness, and the fact I was waiting around for the shot to be ready, I knew this would be a great opportunity to share in my great sarcastic humour.

The other students in the waiting area went along with it, as we made jokes only a cameraperson would understand. Unfortunately for my, when I was in the middle of saying something along the lines of

"Lighting is all about the shadows and how much you can remove them, that's what they've taught us to make our projects broadcast safe!" As we are chuckling and laughing at the dop's choice of lighting, in walks our cinematography professor Peter Woeste; a very respected member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.

"If any of you claim I have taught you this nonsense, you will never find a job in this industry!" I may be embellishing that line, but the emotional impact was similar; as we all practically shit our pants.

From these recent developments I have learned that although my humour can be deft at times, in some circumstances they can blow up in my face. I hope this blog post helps you become aware of this desaturated brand of humour, and that you will slap less jokesters in the face.