The Guy’s Perspective

I’m learning more and more that people really do have very different views on what’s funny. That’s weird to me, since I’m pretty sure I know what is and isn’t funny. But maybe I don’t.

Take “30 Rock”  that show with Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey. Now I know this is going to ruffle some feathers, but I just don’t get it. I was at a holiday party last night and this guy kept going on about Alec Baldwin this and Alec Baldwin that. Well you know what? Alec Baldwin is mildly amusing, but he’s not funny. He just isn’t.

I have tried to watch that show on several occasions mainly because I’m a Tina Fey fan. She was wicked funny on SNL, but not really on “30 Rock.” The writing is just ordinary, and these days with so many choices, ordinary just doesn’t cut it. Good stories draw you in. They help you forget your troubles and make you believe in their world. But with that show, I found myself writing my “To Do List” on the coffee table.

The other thing that got me thinking about what is and isn’t funny was a botched collaboration attempt with a friend, for our comic strip, “The Malaprops.”

I asked my friend to be a guest illustrator and I sent him a few scripts. Instead of just a simple no or yes, I got a dissertation on the “correct” way to write a comic along with revisions. You can imagine my response. No it wasn’t that bad. We’re buddies. But it made me realize that two people truly can have completely different view points on humor. I know this is no amazing revelation, but I just assumed humor was obvious. Apparently it’s not!

So what or whom do I think is funny?

Chelsea Handler on “Chelsea Lately.” Her monologues are just OK, but her biting wit on the round table is priceless. And of course there’s Chuey.

Seinfeld. The writing is masterful. And the cast. Perfect frankly.

C.S. Lewis. The Screwtape Letters. Wicked!

Dilbert. I’m amazed that the strip is funny day in and day out.

The Hangover. I laughed out loud……..Four times. That’s rare.

The Colbert Report. What’s so funny, is that I never quite know if he’s serious. He keeps me guessing.

Richard Pryor, before he lit himself on fire.

Kids. Not necessarily my kids, although I think they’re funny, but kids in general. Their enthusiasm just cracks me up!

Monty Python. At least I used to think it was hysterical. I watched the “Holy Grail” with my oldest a few months ago and I still thought it was good, but not as good as I remember. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was my 30th time watching it. Oh damn, that number keeps coming up.

So maybe funny can’t really by pinned down. It wouldn’t do well in the UFC Octagon because it can’t be forced into submission. It’s subtle and nuanced just as we are. And clearly our sense of it changes over time as we “evolve” and grow.

But damn, “30 Rock” just isn’t funny!

Please share what’s funny to you.

And will SOMEBODY PLEASE enlighten me on this “30 Rock” thing. I truly would like to follow the masses. I’m all about being a worker bee.

“ONE of THE GUYS”

Here is a guest comic strip we wrote for Decaffeinated Coffee. The comic strip  is drawn by the very talented Chuck Harrison. Today’s post is our recent collaboration.
Check out more of Chuck’s great work on his website, DC Strip.

Bob and Torrie at Bob's house.

Bob: So what do you mean you're not getting your needs met? That sounds kind of ominous.

Torrie: No, I don't mean like that.

Bob: Well, what do you mean?

Torrie: First of all you're never available anymore. And when you are, we never go out!!

Bob: Torrie, I have a new job that I like. I'm lucky to have one in this economy, so I'm doing everything I can to keep it.

Torrie: I thought you were a vegan. How can you work in a coffee shop?

Bob: Vegans can drink coffee, they just can't put milk in it.

Torrie: Well what about the sandwiches you serve? Those aren't vegan. Doesn't that bother you?

Bob: Well we also offer sandwiches that are vegan. I'm trying to make the place as progressive as possible. The owner really likes the direction I'm taking it and he says business has never been better.

Torrie: Well, I'd watch him as well. He's after you too.

Bob: What are you talking about? Thomas isn't gay.

Torrie: Oh please, he's totally gay.

Bob: How do you know?

Torrie: How do I know? I'll give you three examples. One: He calls himself Thomas instead of Tom. Two: I know for a fact he prefers a bath over a shower. Three: He has a membership to Remy's Gym. And you know the rumors about that place.

Bob: How do you know all this stuff?

Torrie: Well, I, um…….

Bob: Torrie????

Torrie: OK fine, I've been following him.

Bob: What!!! You've been following him?

Torrie: Yeah, I've been following him.

Bob: I can't believe this. Really? Why?

Torrie: Please, I've seen the way he looks at you. I wanted to find out if my suspicions were true.

Bob: Wow, I'm shocked.

Torrie: Well, it seems like you've got a bunch of admirers over there.

Bob: Torrie, it's just that one customer and he's totally harmless. Not Thomas. And even if Thomas is gay, he's totally professional and totally cool. I like him. He's become a friend.

Torrie: Yeah right. A friend with benefits.

Bob: Is that what this is all about? When you say you're not getting your needs met that's really just you being jealous?? Over my boss? Who's a guy? Even though you know I love you. (Pause) You know what, I'm beginning to wonder.

Torrie: Oh you are??!! Well, I'll have you know that I've got a lot of admirers too.

Bob: I bet you do.

Torrie: Yes I do. You'd be surprised at how many guys take my Step Class.

Bob: Well that's news to me. Are you threatening me?

Torrie: Nope, I'm just saying I have admirers too.

Bob: That sounds like a threat. I thought we were well beyond this kind of interaction. I'm sorry I haven't been around much or paying that much attention to you, but I'm trying hard to focus on myself and my career. It's exciting, don't you understand that?

Torrie: Yes, but there has to be a balance.

Bob: Yes, but balance is created over a long period of time. I agree, it's a little out of whack right now. But that's how things work. You've been talking about going back to school. Well if you do, you'll be extremely busy and that's the way it will be. You'll have no choice and you'll expect me to be supportive. Well, that's what I'm expecting, or I should say, hoping, you'll be now. (Pause) But please, don't threaten me. That's just not good for our relationship. And it doesn't work for me at all. (pause) (Sighs) Even though I'm pretty pissed, I will say to you that you don't have anything to worry about with my boss, any guy or any other girl for that matter. So enough already. Don't you trust me?

Torrie: You're right. Damn, I just get so worked up. I'm sorry Bob. I do trust you, more than anyone I've ever been with, but you know how I am with trust in general.

Bob: We can work on that together, but you need to work on that by yourself too. Maybe there's someone you could talk to?

Torrie: You mean a therapist?

Bob: Maybe. I mean anyone. Sometimes it's good to get another opinion and some objective insight.
It's something to think about.

Torrie: OK. I will think about it. But for now, how about helping me with some of my other needs?

Bob: Sounds good to me. Come here you! I do have one need in particular that requires your special attention.

Torrie: Yum!!! I'm glad I'm not a vegan.

For smaller screens just click on the comic to enlarge!

This is our third installment of “The Malaprops.” See the categories section for the first two.

Today we have a very special guest artist, Chuck Harrison. For more on Chuck and his daily comic strip, check out his website, Decaffeinated Coffee. It’s definitely worth a visit!

Also: “ONE of THE GUYS” will be making an appearance in the near future as a guest writer for his strip.

Special Note: THE GUYS are making some big changes very soon. So just a heads up. We’re going to be using The Guy’s Perspective Dot Com very soon as our new URL. Our look may be changing as well, but we’ll still be bringing you the same content you’ve come to expect from THE GUYS!

We’ll keep you posted. Thanks for visiting. And come again!!

THE GUYS were just visiting our good buddy Bluzdude and we read a very funny post about his experience with his two nephews. For a good laugh, be sure to check it out!!

But as his day with his nephews gave him new insight on what it’s like to be a parent and how difficult it is to be in the trenches day in and day out, it also got us thinking…..about marriage and partnerships.

Divorce impacts many couples. The sanctity of marriage seems to be a tenuous bond these days, easily broken by the many temptations life holds: other men, other women, more excitement, more free time, more money……the list goes on.

So what makes the bond between people strong? Well sure, LOVE. We hope that would be reason number one. And what else? Loyalty, responsibility, friendship, kids? Sure, these would all be good reasons.

But we’d like to give five reasons that maybe you hadn’t thought of. These
are moments that are NEVER, EVER spoken about, but happen in every home around the world. These are moments that bring us together in ways we never thought possible. These are true bonding experiences!

Bonding experience #1:

When couples first start dating it’s all clean and nice. They do everything they can to show their new found love, perfection…..which means pretty much keeping their “human-ness” a secret. What are we talking about? Yes, that’s right, bodily functions.
We’ve all been at dinner, a party or in the bedroom with that
horrifying urge to you know…..pass gas. But we would never dare! Not this early on in the relationship. So instead we endure hours of intense stomach pain to not give away the secret. What secret? “That we’re human!!” That’s all well and good, but in order to really move ahead in the relationship, one of the parties MUST take the leap and “deal” one.

Once that seal is broken a new bond is formed, and the relationship often catapults forward to a new level.

Bonding experience #2:

If you’ve gotten past the first stage you’re doing well. Now you may be spending a considerable amount of time with your new love and that might include sleep overs and extended time at his or her apartment.
This comes with its own unique set of challenges. One challenge high on the list, is the bathroom situation. Now you have to use the SAME bathroom. Your first instinct is to hold it, just like sleep away camp with outdoor latrines, and spiders as big as baseball gloves!  But eventually you have no choice.
First BMs(Bowel Movements) are met with embarrassed smiles, or little jokes, but that facade is just too difficult to maintain. So you have no choice but to do what you normally do. “GO!” This is the second test in the relationship. When you realize it’s not all roses, or that it doesn’t all smell like roses, and you don’t even care, you’ve now jumped your next big hurdle. From here the possibilities are endless.

Bonding Experience #3:

So things progress well and now you’re married and pregnant. Well GUYS you may want to skip this paragraph if your stomach is weak. Anyone who’s ever been part of a delivery, knows it’s not pretty, at least up until the baby part. And even that isn’t always pretty. But in any birth, anything goes. We’re talking every kind of bodily fluid imaginable. And yes GUYS, even poop. And we’re not talking from the babies.
Talk about a deep bonding experience. If a GUY can wipe that image from his mind and still see his wife as that sexy kitten he married, good for him. (Of course THE GUYS would say, our wives are even sexier AFTER giving birth, but that’s us.) And if a woman can still look her husband in the eye without feeling self-conscious that he’s seen it ALL, then intimacy will go to a whole new level!

Bonding experience #4:

And of course the obvious continuation with this is kids. What comes with those little buggers is messy diapers, poop in the pants and bodily fluids everywhere. These are not tasks meant for one person. It’s a tag team event for sure. The act of cleaning up every “episode” is enough to solidify a relationship for life. Each person gains a whole new level of respect and appreciation when sharing some of the dirtiest tasks known to man, AND woman.

Bonding experience #5:

We’d like to make just one last point. Isn’t it clear that some of the messier things in life have played a big part in bonding two people together?! But it doesn’t stop there. It’s especially important in the Golden Years of marriage. Without bodily fluids, what would we have to talk about?

THE GUYS

This is a family of well intentioned folks, who misuse words regularly. The original title was going to be Miss Malaprop based on a friend who happened to be very good at word substitution. However, we decided to spread out the fun and have the comic be about a family. So without further adieu, welcome to “The Malaprops!”

We hope to do this weekly.

THE GUYS

We hope you are all having a great weekend. THE GUYS have been adjusting to our fall schedules so we've been a bit distracted around here. We THINK we have it together now, so we'll be resuming our normal correspondence with our friends in the blogging community and beyond. But today we're still piecing things together. So we recommend you visit some of these great blogs while we iron out the kinks.

We're also responding in our way to the few awards we've received from friends. We're not the best at the technology aspect of things, so we'll just put links with our comments.

We will post this again next week. 

These are in random order!!

AskCherlock  (Biting, smart, political commentary and news!)

Selfesteemblogforwomen (Insightful, sensitive, straight-forward thoughts on relationships! Always something new and different.)

Luvemorleavem (Smart advice for women AND men on dating and relationships. Hip!)

BadGal (The truth! Badgal says it like it is. Watch out!)

Everythingbikiniblog (Sexy, cute and fun!)(Yes, we're GUYS!)

Fibromyalgiaisnotmylife.com (The story of positive thinking. Thoughts from a friend)

HeatherDugan  (The coolest travel entries and pictures. Well written!)

Abitofhappy  (This is the place to feel good!)

TJLubrano (The cutest drawings on the planet. She's talented all around.)

thinkingoutloudblog (Funny and clever! Always something new and different)

Charityjoybell (Beautiful poetry. Uplifting writing)

NaughtieScribe (Intense, passionate, erotic, well crafted. Great writing!)

Justbloggled (Funny and interesting stories on life. Because life IS baffling!)

DecaffeinatedCoffee (Hip comics from a hipster! Funny as hell!)

AristryInfaux (No other way to describe it. Cool and stylish!)

Funkkeejooce (Creative, inspirational, honest and fun!)

Sugarsnow (Intelligent writing and commentary! And funny!)

RamblingBrooke (Creative travel log from one of our free spirited friends. Interesting and informative)

Adventuresofstartingover (Newly single friend blogs about her life. Interesting and insightful opinions)

Withoutdash (Relationships explored from a woman's point of view. Very thorough and thoughtful!)

Nothingprofound (This guy makes you think. Aphorisms at their best!)

ObscureLabyrinth (This site takes you in, squeezes you and bites you on the way out. Lots of fun to read)

Madofme (Go on a wild ride!)

Stugod (Our bud from across the ocean. Welding and tools and more)

Astronomyforeveryone (Interesting and smart! Explore the universe!)

Theabsurdstranger (Philosophy that makes sense. And that's not easy to do!)

Thelifeofannie (Big city girl living in a small town world. Hot and fresh!)

Alittlegirltalk (Just like the title says. Relationships, humor, quotes and more. A great read)

Stuperheroextraordinaire (Funny and honest stream of consciousness!)

NannyGoatsinPanties (One word: FUNNY!)

TheAdventuresofFredandEthel (Small town. Big voice!)

Grammology (Our fave grandma tells it like it is!)

Superficialgallery (Celebrity pics and very funny commentary!)

Applause4aCause (The site with a good heart and good cause)

Mommyslittlecorner (All things mommy. A little bit of everything! Cool pics too!)

Dategirldiaries  (Sweet and honest thoughts about relationships from one of our fave 20 something)

NOTE: If you weren't included on this list today please contact us. It's not because we don't think your site is great. We just don't know you as well as we'd like to. YET!!

We like to spread the love as much as possible. So comment away! We'll take notice for sure!!

THE GUYS