Channel surfing
My wife went out to help a friend in need last night. Kids were in bed. No more emails to return. I’d just finished “True Blood” a few nights ago. I’m lukewarm on “Big Love.” And I find “Flight of the Concords” irritating for the most part. So I wound up flipping around looking for something to watch, something I don’t think I’ve done in years. But a deeply familiar feeling, since that’s how I spent the majority of my teenage life –easily 6 hours per day for several years. First up was “Monty Python’s Life of Brian.” I’d never seen it. Never fully gelled with their brand of comedy as a teenager. I always associated it with my friend John at camp who was forever trying to get us to do improv comedy skits. I figured maybe I was wrong and I’d missed out on a true gem. Watched about 20 minutes of it. It was just awful. I couldn’t stand it. People dressed in robes pretending to be women, screaming in falsetto. Saying supposedly outrageous things and waiting a beat for the laugh. It just seemed so horribly dated and irrelevant. Then I watched a little of Malcolm X. That held up okay. Not quite the emotionally stirring experience I remember as a teenager. It had a nice fragile quality though. The sense that this important piece of history needed to be rendered and he was doing his best with it. It felt close to falling on its face into melodrama or cliche, but worked alright. Might have to revisit the whole thing to decide. I finally settled on “The Princess Bride,” which I’ve probably seen about 30 times already, but haven’t watched in at least 10 years. It’s still completely great. THAT is comedy for me. Wonderful scenarios with rich, full character types in absurd situations, but with enough genuine emotion to pull you through. I still hate the moment at the end when Peter Falk says “as you wish” to Kevin Arnold. But it’s almost forgivable. Felt a genuine surge of joy watching Buttercup fall through the air in her white dress and watching the kiss between them at the end. Clicked off the TV and felt a heartbreaking ache in my chest. Feeling sorry for my poor teenage self, sitting on that couch, desperately wanting someone to love him and fearing it would never happen. Woke up with my wife next to me. Comforted my daughter when she cried in her sleep at 4:30 am. Still feeling a little emotional hangover. Hence this post.