When reality is getting funnier than any joke

Do you ever feel like you are missing the joke, that everybody else is having a laugh at your expense?
Blaise TappBlaise Tapp
Blaise Tapp

That was something I related to until I took the decision I would join rather than beat them. Since a very early age I have been the punchline to many a lame gag: be it about my shambolic appearance, the comedy moniker or my inability to finish sentences before….

But, like many others, I get a kick out of being ridiculed which is why I was officially school clown for four years running and probably why I am neither bilingual or living in a penthouse with a sea view. Laughs and not taking oneself seriously are much more fun than good grades and learning. When you are 15. As a consequence I have always considered myself to be something of a student of laughter. That was until the joke was consistently outdone by reality.

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And what has really convinced me I am living in a parallel universe is the unveiling of technology which gives would-be shoppers an electric shock once their bank balance starts to tumble. This concept is so hard to fathom one leading Internet bank introduced the idea to the public on April Fool’s Day - maybe they knew what was coming and it was their way of ridiculing the techno geeks responsible. A specially produced wristband will administer 255 volts to the wearer should they be in danger of going overdrawn, although there is an option to turn it down as a far less painful alternative.

It may sound as far fetched as a bucket of dung from China but there seems to be a marketplace full of kidults, devoid of any self control and to whom the concept of ‘I can’t afford, therefore I won’t have’ is alien, who this device appeals to. We should take our hats off to these very clever people who have refined this technology.

As someone who can remember a time when a remote control which wasn’t connected to the telly by a wire was considered cutting edge, I regard the progress of the past 10 years mindboggling. The future is bright but I’m not sure it is particularly funny.

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