Humor You Can Swallow

by Lindsay Damast, Posted Feb 24th 2010 @ 5:30PM

Food and comedy have long been intertwined, heralding as far back as the 1800's when audiences would throw rotten tomatoes at a disappointing performer. Rather than dodging last week's produce, today's comedians use food as ammunition of their own, and crowds are eating it up.

So what is it about grub that makes us giggle? Jill Wendholt Silva of KansasCity.com suggests it's because we all share a common thread -- eating -- so we feel in on the joke.

Silva notes that everything about food can be found funny: taste, texture, name, who's eating it, who's serving it, who's cooking it...the list goes on. From the simplest knock-knock joke about your refrigerator running to a comedy routine by Sean Cullen (in which he describes offing members of the audience with their favorite fare), there's plenty to laugh about.

I'd argue, though, that food humor is in fact humorous because we, with our taste buds and brains, are so incredibly picky. Are we laughing at the joke -- or are we laughing at ourselves?

One of the oldest stand-up routines in the book jabs at airline food -- about its portion size, quality or contents. No one uncovered the hilarity in the mundane quite like Jerry Seinfeld, in both his stand-up routines and Seinfeld TV episodes. For Seinfeld fans, just the thought of a muffin top, "big" salad, calzone or marble rye brings a smile to our faces. We reserve the right to want what we want when it comes to our meals, but every now and then, you can't help but realize our taste buds can be ridiculously controlling.

Comedians of all kinds like to mix bites into their bits. George Lopez notoriously jabbed at Jack in the Box fast food, Dave Chappelle finds the funny in varying preferences, and George Carlin celebrates being a fussy eater.

Are you amused by food? Or if tomatoes were available at a comedy show, would you wish you were holding some?

Filed Under: Trends, Newspapers
Tags: comedian, comedy, fast food comedy, featured, food, food humor, funny video, stand up comedy

Chew on This

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-24-2010 @6:24PM Laurie said... Love it, so true!
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2-25-2010 @9:57PM Joey Petroni said... Look at my video how to make a healthy shake by treeclimbingman it's food and it's funny. not sure why? but food can be funny.
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3-27-2010 @9:15PM BF said... "George Carlin celebrates being a fussy eater." Present tense? George Carlin is dead, so good job not knowing that one.

But in the words of a funnier dead comedian, Mitch Hedberg:

I was at a concert in LA, and the band was having an off night, and some people in the audience started throwing tomatoes at the band. Now who would throw tomatoes at the band? That's bad. But who would bring a tomato to a show? That's worse. Don't throw tomatoes at the band. What if they really like tomatoes? They'll think you're enjoying the show. "You guys are great - here's a tomato!"
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