Don't answer that question!

Let's just get this over with. I have never been one of the cool kids. I avoided following trends, wearing the cool clothes, etc. from the earliest days. And the kids who were really cool, who didn't have to work at it - you know, the ones with that certain swagger, who didn't care what anyone thought - well, I could tell I was not one of them, either. I did care what people thought, but I was doomed to be looking in from the outside when it came to fitting in and being one of that "in" crowd.

The reason I mention all this, is that I once again find myself seemingly out of step with the bend of things, behind or ahead of the mainstream or whatever. So I find myself thinking, "gee, am I getting old?" but the truth is that the position I find myself in is not a new one, and has nothing to do with my age.

Let me explain. Saturday night Therese and I finally got around to going to see the movie "Bridesmaids," which is one of the most popular movies out there nowadays, and from all the positive reviews, one gets the impression that it is a very high quality film. It continues to be popular, since the theater we were in was quite full. Therese doesn't usually go to comedies, but since we had heard positive things, she agreed to give it a try.

Well, let me be blunt. Bridesmaids is easily the worst movie I have seen in a theater in at least 10 years. Granted, I have not seen any Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey or other Judd Apatow films in theaters. But if this movie is an example of what good comedy is today, then all I can say is that the bar has fallen so low that the distance between the bar and the ground is measurable only through a microscope.

It is difficult for me to explain how or why this movie is so bad except to say that it is just not funny. The main character is bland and unlikeable. The situations she is put through are so overworked and nothing new is presented to make them interesting. The things that made many of our surrounding audience members howl with laughter only made me cringe. The pacing is slow, the acting is wooden. The only person who seems to be having fun with their character is the woman who plays the sister of the groom, who gets to be brazen and outrageous.

How can a movie that is making so many people laugh so loud be completely unfunny to me? I find this a little troubling. But at the same time, I know that I have a sense of humor, and many things that happen everyday make me laugh. And I watch mainstream sitcoms - granted, mostly in syndication, which may mean that these are yesterday's sitcoms - but I watch them and I do indeed laugh!

So I hold fast to my assessment of the situation, and say that if Bridesmaids is an example of the best comedy films being made today, then comedy is a lost art in Hollywood. Of course, this is nothing new. My friend Ed has been lamenting for years that the people branded comic geniuses nowadays can't hold a candle to the brainy funnymen and women of days gone by. The likes of Andy Kaufman, for example, are not to be found in the current comic landscape. And Ed watches a lot more comedy than I do, so I trust his assessment of the situation. Our tastes are not always the same, and I do feel like Chris Rock and Margaret Cho, for example, are incredibly funny people. I also don't mind Kathy Griffin.

So I guess the big picture is that there is still plenty going on within the mainstream that entertains me. God knows, I don't spend a lot of time looking for it. But I also don't spend as much time as I could searching out quality entertainment, the rare entertainment experience where I might feel transported and changed and uplifted. For example, I just realized that I haven't read a book from start to finish in more than a month. (gotta put "reading" on the schedule!)

I suppose I could blame it on Facebook and cooking shows and whatever else is taking up my time these days. But another part of me feels like there's no reason to blame anyone. Whatever I am doing, it is filling my needs, and if I need something I am not getting, I will break out of my earthenware routine and go scrounging in the gutters and wherever else looking for it. The internet will probably be involved. So if I get disillusioned by feeling once again out of step with the bland and the nonsensical that is forever being put in front of us as the thing everyone is doing, and I ask you if there's something wrong with me, please ignore the question.