#8: I Deadpan Stare into a Camera That Isn’t There

I think of everything in terms of the styles of sitcoms I watched growing up. Even as I’m writing this paper (or any paper for that matter), my voice reads in my head the way a main character on a show reads their monologued over voice. My sense of humor is almost completely influenced by my favorite shows. In middle school, whenever my family would do something ridiculous, I remember I would dead-pan stare into nothing, as if there were a camera there recording the idiosyncrasies of my family life. In my head, I’d be reading my monologue, and out loud I would make the witty/snarky comments so frequent on television, but usually absent from real-life interactions.

I realized also that when I binge-watch Friends (which I’ve made it through completely in one go (I think) 4 times and partially another 3 or 4) that I talk like Chandler. My sense of humor and way of talking are already a bit like him, so he is the character I relate most with in terms of speech and action, and I’ve caught myself many times being extremely witty and hilarious (at least to me, not necessarily to others around me) after binge watching Friends. It’s also interesting how shows influence our mood, attitude, and personality. A friend pointed out to me that he had to be careful when watching too much House MD because he would start to take on the snarky, arrogant, albeit hilarious, personality of Dr. House. He said this while telling me I had to watch it, so I went on a binge and got through the first two seasons in as many days (little sleep or homework were had that weekend), and MAN did I assume the House persona. Haha it was pretty fun, but a little scary at the same time, and I took a break from Netflix for a while (also House got deleted from Netflix which I’m still upset about but that is a different topic entirely).

Overall, the largest influence on my life, or at least my personality, has been television. I learned how to interact with the external world by watching a fake reality on a tiny glowing screen. Might be why I’m a tad socially awkward, also why I have an extremely unique sense of humor that the people closest to me really appreciate and genuinely seem to enjoy thankfully (and this is why they’re close to me, if the people always around me don’t think I’m funny, then who would appreciate my deadpan stare). I’m glad I watched what I did, but its interesting to think of the person I would be today if I didn’t have the bank of television humor constantly whirling around my head like I do now.

Side note: has anyone else noticed that people who watch/listen to a lot of comedians tend to be super funny themselves? Coincidence? Are they listening because they’re already funny and relate to the comedians, or are they funny because they subconsciously mimic what they’ve absorbed?