To begin, I have to admit that it took every iota of willpower not to do a bit where I submitted a list of 10 of my own tweets but I imagine the kind editors and readers of the Guardian absolutely do not want that. In the end, these are the pieces that I could guarantee would always pull me out of a foul mood and make me laugh out loud.
This was an eye-opening experiment for me. I’d like to think of my comedic sensibilities as sophisticated, if a little gentle. Turns out that’s wrong. What really makes me laugh is calamity, disaster, rude words and incredible commitment to silliness. Here are the small things that amuse my small mind.
1. This kid’s reaction to breaking his cymbals
Photo: YouTube screen grab
I think what I love most about this video is that you can see each individual thought enter the poor boy’s mind. There’s a moment, just as he places the remaining cymbal on the ground, where you can almost see the A Beautiful Mind calculations swirling around his head, while he slowly derives this perfect solution.
2. Conan O’Brien plays Old Timey Baseball
It’s a struggle to think of any one person who has had a more profound effect on the comedy of my generation than Conan O’Brien. From golden age Simpsons to Late Night to now, it’s hard to think of anyone else who can so embody a concept I’ll describe as “genius stupidity.”
Photo: YouTube screen grab
This clip isn’t just my favourite Conan moment, it might be my favourite comedy moment. It’s Conan at his absolute best, unleashed on a pack of weirdos doing something weird. I love it.
3 The 21st of September
There are approximately two thousand Demi Adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) videos that I would love to include on this list but for brevity I’m going with his early tradition of celebrating the 21st of September. Watch them all. It just gets better and better.
Photo: YouTube screen grab
4. Weather Boy
This has long been one of my favourite clips on the Internet. It is a guaranteed hungover, hate-the-world smile from me on every replay. You can only imagine my devastation to find out in collating these clips that this is FAKED. It has retained the space on my list despite this for two reasons: one, I believe a large portion of really enjoying Internet comedy is allowing yourself not to care when something is too good to be true; two, getting your son to destroy you on television in order to create a viral moment is still very sad and so the overall “humiliation factor” remains the same.
5. RIP but I’m different
What more can I say? “RIP to your grandma but I’m different” is one of the funniest phrases ever uttered. Confidence, baby. Confidence.
6. The Salt and Pepper Diner Story
John Mulaney is on an incredible streak. His last three specials have been among the tightest and best I’ve seen in my life. The Sack Lunch Bunch is unbelievably joyful television and his broadway show with Nick Kroll, Oh, Hello, was on repeat so often in my old share house that rules had to be instituted as to how many times a month it could be played. This is the clip that first introduced me to Mulaney and remains one of the funniest stories I’ve ever heard.
7. Saving Private Ryan end credits song
I truly don’t know why this makes me laugh so much. Is it the sheer conceit that Spielberg commissioned a Will Smith-styled end credits rap for Saving Private Ryan? Is it the note perfect soundbites? Or is it that this video sits on YouTube with a relatively low number of views next to another clip that genuinely does play the end credits of Saving Private Ryan, with no clear indication which one is the joke one? It’s all of it — plus it’s catchy as hell.
8. Golf tips
So much of growing up on the Internet for me was living for whatever came out of The Onion offices. Like everything they do, their clips always perfectly walked the line between absurdity and reality. It never feels like you’re watching a parody, more than you’ve tuned in to a news service in a slightly alternate dimension.
9. Perry Bible Fellowship
The Cadillac of the Webcomics era, the real struggle I had here was limiting myself to just one comic. The second problem, I suppose, was finding any comic that wasn’t far, far too filthy to ever appear on this wholesome website. Pitch black, uniquely horrifying, funny.
10. Tiny man
While I want to say I love this because it’s a pitch-perfect parody of vapid content that loves to exploit but really it’s the wonderful face the man pulls when he first sees himself tiny.
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