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WOW: There's A Lot About Mental Illness That's Really Funny.
Australian comedian Ward tells me that she is having the best Fringe she’s ever had, with her most successful show to date, What If There’s No Toilet? An hour about Irritable Bowel Syndrome and mental illness. Hardly most people’s idea of a laugh a minute subject matter. But why not?
Felicity believes that the biggest challenge for her when it comes to performing stand up about a serious subject that can make people feel uncomfortable is to make it more funny than it is alienating:
“I always knew that was going to be the challenge. Because people either don’t want to talk about mental illness or we only talk about it in very serious, respectful, reverent tones – otherwise you’re seen as laughing at mental illness when actually, there is a lot about mental illness that is really funny… If I’m talking about it then I’m giving you permission to laugh about it. I’m not saying that people that don’t have a mental illness can get up and go ‘how about those freaking crazies!? They’re nuts aren’t they?!”
Curious, do you have anyone in your family with dimentia? {nm} Apr 29, 22:09
Yeah. Also, I doubt whether it would make much difference regarding the making of a good film. {nm} Apr 29, 22:18
EXACTLY. {nm} Apr 29, 22:22
And that's the point, it's based on a real person. Heck, I wouldn't care if they did a satire on the Reagan presidency... Apr 29, 22:37
Comedian Ruby Wax: What's So Funny About Mental Illness? Apr 29, 23:20
And in some of these examples, it's those with the disease that's doing the comedy and thus bringing light to it. {nm} Apr 30, 00:18
What difference does that make? So, the only person that should make a film about a bank robbery is a bank robber. {nm} Apr 30, 00:28
Nobody else with an imagination could bring any light to it. {nm} Apr 30, 00:35
Apples and oranges. Mental disorder is not the same thing as bank robbery. I'm done. {nm} Apr 30, 00:36
Comedian Joshua Walters: On Being Just Crazy Enough. Apr 29, 23:21
SPLITSIDER:The Uneasy Relationship Between Mental Illness & Comedy. Apr 29, 23:27
WOW: There's A Lot About Mental Illness That's Really Funny. Apr 29, 23:32
Performing in black face is never funny {nm} Apr 29, 22:52
People seemed to dig Tropic Thunder {nm} Apr 30, 03:21
did not SNL build their Reagan jokes in the 80s on dementia? {nm} Apr 30, 00:08
Nope. {nm} Apr 30, 00:17
Nope a lot of their jokes were he was this sweet old man for the camera and sharp as a tack behind the scense {nm} Apr 30, 03:16
I don't have a problem with comedy related to any subject, including dementia, in a general sense, Apr 30, 07:05
In other words - A fictional president with dementia, played for laughs = potentially funny, Apr 30, 07:10
I don't see Will Ferrel comedies as "edgy". Self-humiliation and potty humor are not "edgy", at least IMO. {nm} Apr 30, 12:23