Saturday, August 10, 2013

The Tragic Tale of Anthony Jeselnik

Watching Anthony Jeselnik's 8th of August interview with Conon O'Brien, where he discussed the trouble he got into with New Zealanders for his "great" and "amazing" jokes at the expense of Adam Strange, a New Zealander killed by a shark, it was obvious who the real victim in all this was: Anthony Jeselnik.

It was hard not to feel an overwhelming sympathy for this man as I watched him relate his tale of woe, yet somehow I managed.

I felt compelled to learn more about this wonderful human being, and that's when I truly came to feel sorry for the man. For not only is he cursed with a TV show, The Jeselnik Offensive, whose title sounds like a series of battles from outside Stalingrad in 1942 ... to be fair the show is almost as funny as the siege of Stalingrad ... I also discovered a terrible tragedy in Mr Jeselnik's past.

Anthony Jeselnik's sense of humour was killed on 9/11.

Jeselnik's body was safely home in Pittsburgh on that tragic day, but his sense of humour was working as a financial consultant in the second tower. It never got out alive. Crushed under tonnes of twisted steel and metal it died that day, and has never been seen or heard from since.

To make matters worse, Jeselnik's attempts to seek compensation for his loss were, at first, refused. Officials claimed there was no evidence Jeselnik even had a sense of humour, and produced hours of footage of his stand-up work as proof.

But then a Ms Anthea Stringe came forward and told her tale of survival in the second tower on 9/11, and how she was helped down the stairwell by Anthony Jeselnik's sense of humour, which keep her going by making knock-knock jokes and singing bawdy limericks. Once she was safe Jeselnik's sense of humour selflessly re-entered the tower to try and help others. The last words Ms Stringe heard it say were 'There was a young lady from Flint ...' before the sense of humour was lost to the noise and dust of that horrible day.

Compensation was finally awarded to Mr Jeselnik, in the form of a cable TV show and a over-inflated sense of entitlement, and he continued on ...

Incredibly, this brave man has continued to work in the field of American comedy, despite the tragic loss of his sense of humour.

He's not the only American comedian to carry on after the untimely death of his sense of humour. Andrew Dice Clay soldiered on despite his sense of humour being shot in a cocaine deal gone wrong. And Andy Kaufman's sense of humour may not have died, but it did run away and join the circus when it was only twelve.

So let's salute Anthony Jeselnik, a brave hero whose life serves to remind us that even without a sense of humour an American can continue to be a functioning, well-respected member of the comedic fraternity.

I think we can all agree that the true horrors of global terrorism are never so apparent as when watching Anthony Jeselnik trying to be funny.

Oh, and if anyone is offended by this, let me reassure you it's only because you don't know me. If you did know me you'd understand this is classic Tulloch. Classic.

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