Word: humority
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Kuwait and its petroleum riches. However, the war ended in a stalemate, with Saddam still (ruthlessly) ruling Iraq and no way but sanctions and air strikes to keep his regime in check. With children dying from untreated diseases and malnutrition and the Kurds existing day-to-day by the humor of Saddam's Republican Guard, the Americans expressed concern about the situation. They bolstered the program of weapons inspections, the condition for lifting sanctions. The government stated it thought inspections would go smoothly and the troops could go home...
Rock sits at his desk, flipping through a manila folder with scripts from his writers for proposed sketches. This is the most important moment of the day--deciding what makes him laugh. "I like humor that's not really funny," he says. "I like talking about subjects that aren't funny in the first place and making them funny. So anything down and depressing is something I'll talk about." He accepts a sketch about a hate group (the wrinkle: the group hates its leader too). He rejects a documentary parody called Scared Straight in which gay men scare kids...
...despite his solitary, almost misanthropic basic nature, Rock feels the essence of his humor is in shared experience. "The material comes from whenever you realize that you and someone else have something in common," says Rock. "So any conversation you've had more than once, anything you see happening to you that you see happening to a friend, you go, 'Hmmm, that's a situation I can make funny.'" To road test jokes, Rock slips into clubs late at night and performs unannounced...
Rock doesn't see himself as a spokesperson or a leader, but nonetheless he's trying to pave the way for the next generation of comics. He's funding the Illtop Journal, a college humor magazine patterned after the Harvard Lampoon that will be based at Howard University in Washington. The Illtop Journal is set to start publication this fall. "In his various travels Chris has been frustrated by the lack of comedy writers of color," says Stepsun Records head Bill Stephney, an adviser on the journal. "So this is the best way to address that. He also noticed that...
Joshua Quittner's article about how cell-phone users can be extremely annoying was a masterpiece in "irritating humor" [BUSINESS, Aug. 23]. I laughed till I cried. Quittner really sized up the situation and even gave a reasonable solution--a hypothetical electronic jamming device that would knock a phone abuser off-line. It was great having a comic break during my workday. And, yes, I do have a cell phone. SANDY MASON North Fort Myers...