It's All Such A Laugh

My life is bringing the entertainment these days, mainly in the form of HR. Despite the havoc wrought upon him (therefore all of us) by daylight savings time ending and the continuous fountain of snot he's running due to a maybe cold/maybe teething/maybe both scenario, he's still been really ramping up the delight factor. 18 months is THE BEST. He's capable of making me laugh at 6 a.m. and I don't think I've said that about anyone, ever.

That said, I've also taken in some amusing bits on the telly and whatnot. For one, we finally watched Bridesmaids. The Wiig deserves a special Oscar for perfectly faking the reaction to pounding scotch in the airplane scene, and it's not news anymore that Melissa McCarthy is fearless and amazing in everything she does. But I'm going to come right out and say that this movie did not deliver like I expected it would. I barely laughed out loud. I don't know if it's a case of it collapsing under its own buildup or what, but I was kind of disappointed. I think it's my fault that I wanted it to be the best movie in the world, so I was unfairly over-critical. Maybe I need to watch it again. Or maybe it just is what it is. I liked it, but didn't love it. I think I'm really just tired of the conventional narrative formula that applies to every movie - down up down. Stasis followed by a high, the inevitable crash, the rebuilding. Every story needs conflict, but does it have to be so predictable, the way in which it plays out? Again, not the fault of the movie, it just called my attention to something that's been frustrating me for a long time.

I also watched Jumping the Broom which was a like-not-love for lots of reasons, but I liked it more than I thought it would. There's this one scene where the groom's cousin tells the best man in his gawdawful prepster top, "Shut up! Look at your shirt!" and its delivery was so good-- I can so see myself using that line to make a point. I realize I do sort of love Mike Epps when he's not being a clown. And it was amazing to be reminded that Gary Dourdain is a dude that exists. Remember Skye when we used to watch like 20 CSI episodes a week? How could I have forgotten about Warrick Brown when he was once such a part of my life? Good to see him getting work. It made me cry once, and not even the part where I realize that there's something called "The Cupid Shuffle" and I lived my whole life until now not knowing about it.

And then Charlie Day hosted SNL, which I hardly ever watch, and his Freakasaurus might have been the best non-baby thing I saw all weekend. Basically it made me so thankful that he's spawning.

Unrelated to any of this, this song came up on my shuffle the other morning and it occurs to me that, though it couldn't be more British, it's really the original 99% anthem.