The Comic Cow

Hinduism has The Sacred Cow. Judaism has The Golden Cow. America has The Comic Cow. From the advertisements of Chick-fil-a to Gary Larson's Far Side, we think cows are funny. They're funny looking, they make funny sounds, they chew cud. Need I say more? One can imagine that if cows ever became sapient, they'd be stand-up comics or late-night talk show hosts. Or--perhaps funnier--murderous bovines. That's just what a friend of mine attempted to do: write a story about time traveling, war-like cows. (And this is the reason why I'm talking about cows in this inaugural blog entry about writing.) It was a good story when one accepts the absurdity of the premise. There are things he needed to clean up (as with any early draft) but it'll work as long as he keeps it a little tongue-in-cheek. He has also some heavier drama going on with his main character, which may be harder to reconcile with murderous space cows.

There needs to be balance, different in every story, between comedy and drama. And if the scale is off, the story comes across as stupid and lame. I am finding that balance is hard to achieve with my own writing. My animal of choice is the turkey, and my story is more knee-slapping hilarity. But it still needs a balance, a reference point with the real world, for the jokes to make sense. I've often heard that writing comedy is hard, and I think that's the case. Writing the pedantic, "woe is me" drama is easy. But making it funny, and making us care at the same time--that's the real challenge. Anyone up for uplifting some cows (or turkeys) to help with the task?