Louisville: My Funny Town

"They are also unimpressed by the Golden Globes."
@usernamelesser

It's January, so over at Consuming Louisville, the lovely and talented Ms. Michelle Jones is featuring her annual column "One Thing I Love About Louisville." I participated a bunch of years ago back when I was still blogging anonymously and before I ever knew anyone here in town; it was actually how I ended up meeting Michelle, who has since become a dear friend and who helped to change my Louisville life.

I've always wanted to participate again, but I'm always flummoxed. How do I come up with ONE thing I love about this city that I love SO MUCH.

Inevitably, after the deadline to volunteer passes, I think of something. And of course, I've thought of that something this year.

One thing I love about Louisville: Louisville is full of funny people.

Google the "funniest actor in Louisville." The top search result leads to my boyfriend. (Who, in my humble opinion, also deserves the title "best laugh in Louisville" and maybe even "most unsung altruist in Louisville.") Sometimes, when I mention that to someone – "you know, my boyfriend's been called the 'funniest actor in Louisville'– people will respond: "Well, IS he?"

And the answer, I think, is yes. He also happens to be a very funny person when not in character. It's what drew me to him in the first place. And it's one of the many things that keeps me psyched about loving him on a day-to-day basis.

I gravitate toward funny people. I like to think that I'm a funny person myself. But the people I love most in the world– and in this city–  are the people who make me laugh hardest and longest.

And it's not just the "expected" people; I spend a lot of time with actors and performers and writers and "public figures," and it's not surprising that they're quick with a quip.

It's my friend who graffitis her Twitter pictures with images of cats.

It's the fact sometimes I will lose whole hours at work because my co-workers (all of whom are my "superiors" at work, so I feel justified in playing along) get on a roll with funny stories.

It's my favorite mom and our friends rewriting the rulebook for the Montessori school her daughter attends.

But no joke, the funniest thing I've seen all year is local twitter humorist "Brokey McPoverty" (best handle ever!) and her #RespectableHipHop meme.

I have to admit, I follow then unfollow Brokey all the time. She's a prolific tweeter, and sometimes when she's on a roll, it is pure gold. And sometimes I'm so busy that her prolificness is just too much for my feed, and I pull the plug.

But after this most recent "roll," I may never pull the plug again.

Genius.

From her blog:

Last night, much of Twitter united to reclaim and rewrite our favorite less-than-progressive rap and hip hop lyrics.  It was a beautiful thing.

It all started when I was listening to 2 Chainz, which I do when there’s no one around to judge me for it, and I thought about the line “She got a big booty, so I call her big booty.”  I thought to myself, really?  You can’t find a more inventive nickname than that?  This is what’s passing for a rap lyric these days?  Then I thought to myself–how fucking rude.  You strip her of her name–her entire identity–and refer to her by her ass??  Inappropriate, 2 Chainz.  Not cool at all.  So, I revised it for him.

Then figured, why not help out some other misguided hippety hop rappers, too.  Thankfully, Twitter joined in on the campaign and what we got was a few of the most hilarious hours of tweets I’ve seen in awhile.  Not putting all of them here was tough, but here are some of the best.

I laughed so hard I hurt myself. That's the best kind of ouch in the world.

We have a lot of "professionally funny" people here in Louisville. We're lucky to have the Comedy Caravan and The Bard's Town. I'm not too broken up about the loss of The Improv on 4th Street Live! because we have these two homegrown venues. We have the Louisville Improvisors and Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble.  Hunter S. Thompson was funny. Muhammad Ali was and is hilarious at times.

There's Kentucky for Kentucky and Lebowski Fest. And we're about to host Pee Wee Over Louisville.

Joseph Ley's, Why Louisville, even the recently-departed and WAY-controversial Lynn's Paradise Cafe: funny stuff.

We're a funny town. We're a smart town. And I love that so often I will meet a new person and think: "Wow, that's the funniest conversation I've had in...."

In what? A week? Maybe? At most?

I love that Louisvillagers makes me laugh. For all the right reasons. Y'all are funny, funny people. Thank you for entertaining me.