"More On Poop"

Kids go home after my show talking a lot about poop. Saying "poo" saying "poo poo" saying "diaper baby" You know potty talk.

I've always found poop and farts very funny, hey it's just me being not very uptight or incredibly uptight, either way it's funny to me. I think poop is what makes a clown funny, it's the basest of and lowest of humor. The lowest humor is the defining element of a clown. Poo, boogers and farts.

I'm going to take a leap here and compare poop to the escalator. (big leap I know!)

When I was a kid, I used to sneak a listen to my dad's George Carlin record, Class Clown. I imagine no real shock to anyone of my age that went into comedy.

The humor on there about the seven words, yeah funny but what I loved most; The fart humor and his joke about noticing things around us. George Carlin talked about the escalator, the handle going slightly faster than the stairs. Since I was 9 years old, I can't help but notice the handle on the escalator goes a little faster. And I chuckle inside to myself.

I'll bring the comparison back. To a 3 to 6 year old child, the world is poop. It's parents, saying do you have to go? It's "uh oh, we had an accident", it's the amazing giant toilet you sit on. It's the line up at preschool in front of the tiny toilets and going, all at the same time... military style (don't tell me that's not funny).

Comedy is about noticing the unusual but more often what is most funny to us, is the most obvious. Riding an elevator and noticing everyone looks forward and wondering what would happen if you faced the wrong way. Getting on the morning bus but walking up the stairs backward. Driving to work on a snowy day with your convertible top down...in a bathing suit. These would all be funny scenarios but really out of the very normal.

So, noticing the escalator is funny, because it's in front of me all the time. But really I'm an adult, so my world is pretty big compared to a 4 year old. I have the wonderful option of taking myself places, on my own, no one holding my hand. Which would be sort of funny when I think about it, having someone take my hand and drag me places, strap me in a car seat and put me in a shopping cart.

Poo is funny because it's like 40% of a 4 year olds world. It's obvious, it's in front of them all the time. Adults may deal with it and make little jokes but the kids know the adults don't dig changing diapers or wiping a butt. It's gross. It's a lot of control a kid has. So poo is like the escalator in that it's in front of them all the time. They think of a joke the clown said and it's funny again.

So, a clown's humor. Low humor. Falling down. We all do it. It's funny. Not understanding the most basic thing, misunderstanding and thinking someone said poo when they said "blue". And of course bodily noises, fraps, farts, whoopies.

It's more funny to me when people don't like that kind of humor. Like they don't poo! I even think people in Europe are funny, cause, they're all Euro pean. (get it pee in!)