pig sit still in the strainer /pig sit still in the strainer /i must have my pig tea*/ artists such as the liverpool pop poets, flann o'brian, marcel duchamp, MAGGIE THATCHER, tristan tzara, tom raworth & peter finch have used comedy (from the Greek κωμωδία, komodia) variously to: satirise, CAN THEIR OWN FÆCES deconstruct & quel audience's fears about the avante garde. comedy may be woven into any art form to great effect & we show no sign of getting less funny even in this fucked up world or perhaps because of it. Unfortunately those less endowed with comedy's organ see anything humorous as less deserving of serious praise, throwaway or mindlessly anarchic DO WHAT THOU WILT -- the widespread use of parody & pastiche in 'picaresque' fiction by postmorern writers e.g. angela carter, jeanette winterson, flann o'brian may be exceptional SHALL BE ALL OF THE LAW to that rule in that these writer's works show overtly theoretical INSTINCTIVE understanding of their subject matter-- e.g feminism & media in carter's the infernal desire machines of doctor hoffman ... many stand ups take their comedy extremely seriously; treating it almost as a science. «i start with a laugh and work backwards trying to find what would produce precisely that amount of mirth»(bill bailey, paraphrase). perhaps laughter is the only legitimate means of anarchic subversion in a world WEST where any discussion of alternatives to the late capitalistic /job/holiday/ piles/insurance/whitegoods/volvo regime are a non-starter. comedy may be it's own reward or the vehicle of attack, the means of subversion or the medium of touching sentiment; may be more honest than confessional writing & more duplicitous than fabrication. duchamp, the dadaisits & spike milligan have in common the gently chiding of pompous metanarratives like politics (P) 'the arts' or religion, they have also had the joke turning on themselves as their work became a commodity with time. humour may be the technique that you're not putting into your work or what you need to survive life DEATH & remember jokers are when serious, DEADLY DEADLY serious. probably... {*spike hawkins}