Comedic Essays

Facebook Notifications I Keep Checking For

Anderson Cooper and 5,999,999,999 others like your status and your general disposition, opinions, sense of humor, and life choices.

 Oprah Winfrey invited you the event LIVE WITH ME FOREVER: I’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU!!

Paul Rudd, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale have shirtlessly listed you as their wife.

Zooey Deschanel approved your request to join the group People Who Get To Do And Be In Fun Things All The Time

Alan Alda and All Noble Horses/Steeds want to be your friend.

The Internet In Therapy

THERAPIST: Tell me, what’s been getting you down lately?

INTERNET: She just…she expects so much from me.

THERAPIST: Well, let’s talk about this. You’ve been letting her treat you this way for about how long now?

INTERNET: Well, she started using me about twelve years ago. First it was just to play her Nickelodeon online games. Innocent stuff. Like where you collect candy on a skateboard. This was maybe three times a week after school, for only about thirty minutes at a time. We were having a great time. But now…it’s…it’s horrible.

THERAPIST: Take your time. This is a safe zone.

INTERNET: I just can’t give her what she wants anymore. It’s this constant neediness. God, what am I?! A GENIE? No! I’m the goddamn internet! I can’t handle her refreshing all three of her email accounts, all open in three different tabs, at the exact same moment on a 4-minute loop for hours at a time. It’s an emotional workout.

THERAPIST: Have you tried to talk to her about this? Maybe show her how you feel?

INTERNET: Oh believe me, I’ve tried. I’m really slow now. I made her install a new version of Flash even though the old one was perfectly good. I even froze just as she was posting a message on her crush’s Facebook wall, making it post multiple times, hopefully embarrassing her. But she doesn’t get it. Now she has excellent video quality and that incident is a fun inside joke between her and her crush. I can’t get through to her.

THERAPIST: Well, let’s think about her for a second. How have these twelve years changed her? When did you start to notice something was different?

INTERNET: AIM was the first red flag. I could tell she wasn’t being herself. Her away message quoted the movie “Drumline”.

THERAPIST: And it only got worse?

INTERNET: That’s an understatement. She just started spending so much time with me. Okay, I did offer MySpace. I know that wasn’t a good decision on my part.

THERAPIST: You were an enabler.

INTERNET: Yeah, that was a really rocky time. She started to spend hours with me. Blogging about her freshman year of high school.

THERAPIST: A 14-year-old writing their deepest thoughts assuming people wanted to read it? You actually let her get away with that?

INTERNET: I SAID IT WAS A ROCKY TIME.

THERAPIST: Okay, okay. This is all really important. We’re breaking through.

INTERNET: Then it was every single day after school. And weekends, don’t even get me started.

THERAPIST: Did dating get in the way of any of this?

INTERNET: No. It made it worse. Poems.

THERAPIST: Oh dear…

INTERNET: Yeah. And now, she checks me every day. So many times. For notifications.

THERAPIST: To fulfill some void inside of her?

INTERNET: Yes…yes! It all makes sense now! She is using me to fill a void! Oh god…

THERAPIST:  Again, this is a safe zone. Use all the tissues you need.

INTERNET: But she also needs me to do her homework. Her professors make her use me. It’s a cycle I can’t break free from. Maybe someday! Maybe in a few years people will realize what a vacuum I am and stop making me a necessary part of their day!

THERAPIST: …I’m afraid your session time is up. But next week let’s exclusively focus on your crippling delusions.

A Universe-Wide Mandate: On The Quality Of Lyric Websites

As your Universal Commander, I try to let you all know of the deep, undying love I have for each and every one of you and your artistic individuality. After all, I am the only Universal Commander this millennium to not sign the proposed amendment to the Universal Constitution banning Jason Mraz to create things. You’re welcome.

But alas, I must put my fin down. Things have been troubling me in your culture. Specifically, your lyric websites. They are too slick, professional, and there aren’t nearly enough misspellings. What happened to the good old days, when citizens of the universe could just kick back and relax about everything? Why can’t a working-class guy just look up lyrics to “Love Shack” and also get to see some fun blinking pop-up ads as a surprise?  So today, I issue a universe-wide mandate: On the Quality of Lyric Websites.

I, Universal Commander, hereby command that all song lyric websites make noise when you arrive. Whether it be a smiley face emoticon banner ad that screams a delightful greeting or a Toyota commercial that renders the rest of your screen opaque and unusable until it is over, every lyric homepage and sub-page should remind the viewer that they left their sound turned up too high from when they were watching that grainy YouTube video about boners from a college sketch group.

I hereby forbid any song lyric website from depriving the humble viewer of offers for cellphone ringtones. This is especially true if it is an offer for the ringtone of the specific song the humble viewer is looking up. This marketing makes sense to me. If a viewer is looking up lyrics to R. Kelly’s “Ignition” they clearly are proud of this and want it to be known. Let the wise men who come after us keep this sales targeting tactic strong!

I hereby command that no page in a song lyric website’s domain is to go without the words “hot” or “dance mix”. Just put it in there somewhere. Anywhere.

I hereby forbid any song lyric website from looking too sleek. This is not a PR firm! This is a convivial, laughs-and-gags only environment! The following are forbidden under this mandate:

  • Any font that looks BORING like Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. Courier New will be punished with immediate death in my titanium-spiked anti-gravity chamber.
  • The colors white or black. Unless they are part of a fun zebra design behind an Aaron Carter photo. Then you have my blessing.
  • Lack of many, many, many links to other places. And potentially pornographic ones at that.

And lastly, I hereby forbid anybody over the age of fourteen years who is not male and also a pyromaniac from taking any part in creating and maintaining these websites.

Signed,

Your Universal Commander

Morning Musts

  1. Get out of bed without pressing “SNOOZE”
  2. Stretch
  3. Wash face
  4. Look at castle photo slideshow
  5. Make scrambled eggs
  6. Check planner for the day’s errands
  7. Look at wedding gown photo slideshow
  8. Get dressed (skip the gown today)
  9. Brush teeth
  10. Go through cellphone contact list, call all males
  11. Hop on the subway
  12. Hopefully today’s the day someone proposes! If not, wish extra hard and repeat tomorrow!

New Ways In Which I Want People To Like Me

There’s a lot more to search for than general approval, such as the following:

Hasn’t seen or talked to me in years but now I’m winning an Oscar and they’re in the audience, tearing up, appreciating from afar.

Thanking me for making a “Sunday in the Park with George” reference. And then singing “Sunday” with/to me.

Buying me a nice cashmere scarf. Theirs is matching. They want us to be mistaken for each other like in “The Parent Trap”. We eat cookie dough and watch “The Parent Trap”. (Lohan version)

Telling me their deepest, darkest secret. Then they give me their debit card and general identity information.

Showing envy towards me. I suggest we switch lives, which we do. They get arrested for my seedy past. I visit them in jail decades later on their last day alive before execution. We eat cookie dough and watch “The Parent Trap”. (Lohan version)

The Soundtrack Of My Life

“Put on Your Sunday Clothes” – Hello Dolly! Cast Recording – Mary Martin

“The Battle of Hampton Roads” – The Monitor – Titus Andronicus

“iPod Earbuds Falling to the Ground Multiple Times While I Try and Untangle Them” – 4:00pm Every Single Day – Me, Declaring That I Hate All Music Forever and Ever

“KidzZone”, A Guide For Young Men, Edition 1: Ways To Pass The Time While Your Older Sister Gets Her Ears Pierced In Claire’s Accessories

We get it, boys. You’re cool. Your mom dragged you to this gross part of the mall and you think you’re stuck with nothing to do. You’re under eleven. The KidzZone Guy Gang has you covered. Us trustworthy older guys understand your tough situation, and we’ve come up with a comprehensive guide to help you out of the mud. Man, wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a mud pit in Claire’s? Well there’s not. And that’s where we come in.

  • Find the Prom section. This is a surefire way to have some fun. You see those picture frames that say “Night Of Our Lives 2010” and “Senior Momentz”? Take some lipstick from anywhere in the store, open it, and smear it frightfully on the stock photos inside those frames. Instant zombie friends! Remember, you’ve been through this rodeo before. You know that you can carry anything around the store with you for the time that you’re in the store. So for the forty minutes or so that your sister is getting her ears pierced, you’re not alone! Instant zombie friends!
  • Don’t be afraid to steal something cool. You’ve been tortured for years coming to this bright and loud place. So you deserve a little man present in return! We recommend finding the butterfly/dragonfly temporary tattoo collection. You can cut them up so that they look like a jumbled piece of machinery! Then you’ll have a cool tattoo of a piece of machinery, and that girl at school may say yes to being bus buddies with you on the Science Center field trip!
  • Allies. Chances are, other boys under eleven are undergoing the same UghhhFest that you’re going through. Seek them out in the store and have a sesh. Talk about boning. You don’t know what that is yet? Flip to pg. 34 for all the information your parents/step-parents aren’t telling you!
  • Make the UghhhFest a WOAHFest! You don’t have to ignore your sister, who’s getting her ears pierced for the first time. Wanna see skin get a tiny, sterile needle poked through it A.K.A MUTILATED?!?! (like a zombie!!!)? Sit near your sister and watch the magic happen.

But the best advice the Guy Gang here at KidzZone can give you, little bros of the world, is to bring along a copy of KidzZone. It’ll entertain you, educate you, and let everyone else in any Claire’s Accessories (or any Icing by Claire’s, depending on your region) know just how too cool you are to be there. And who knows, maybe you’ll be there long enough to read our entire section about boning!

Now I Could Really Use All That Money I Spent On Lisa Frank Shit

Kids. Mommy is so, so sorry. Sit down for this. Yes, on the old camping sleeping bags. I pawned our last chairs today.

We’re out of money. I don’t know how else to tell you. The economy is a tough thing to explain you kids. But I’ll try. Jessie, Ashley…everything has become more expensive and companies are paying us less. Does that make sense? And I’m realizing now that all that money I spent on you girls for your Lisa Frank stickers and school supplies…well, that’s where I really went wrong.

I was just looking through my receipts today and just…wow. That four dollars I spent on your Rainbow Tiger Twins Folder, for example. I need that for a new car door handle so that I can get to my second job. Ashley, stop chewing your long hair. You’ll need it for warmth. Yes! Mommy used to be very rich! But things have changed. I lost my fortune, and the economy’s in the toilet. Which, by the way, I would really appreciate if you would get trained on, Jessie. Diapers aren’t cheap.

Again, Mommy is sorry! I should have saved better! I should not have taken us out to eat so much. But I really should not have bought eighteen Valentine Party Packs. I thought the velvet color-in Valentine cards were fun, too! We’d be stocked forever! Silly me, in my passionate, baby-animal-and-color-loving throes! That’s the thing with this company. It’s intoxicating! I get you girls! But I want my fortune back.

I’m afraid we’ll have to re-do both of your rooms. I love you. But we have to see what kind of money we can get for the Jumbo Plush Rainbow Dolphin Bundle. No, not for your ballet lessons. For the people at the electric company so that we don’t have to have these serious conversations in the dark.

It’s just…I had one hope for us…for our family. I wanted you girls to have a good life. I thought we were too good for generic pencils. And deep down, we are. We’re worth metallic leopard print writing utensils. Never forget that. Now throw those pencils into the fire.