Aside: (adj) a remark by a character in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play.

In my mind’s eye, comedy is much more efficient, powerful and funny when it’s delivered by people who know how to be serious.

A generation of wise-cracking clowns, who think that the only goal in achieving acceptance is to get people to giggle no matter how many breaches they may make in personal sensitivity, is not my idea of a night of theater.

Our generation is full of too many people who make asides.

If they were making “aside comments” just in an attempt to be clever, I could attribute it to the pursuit of mirth. But I feel that many aside comments are spoken because the speaker is afraid to talk to power.

It is amazing to me how politicians are bold when they’re hanging around their constituency or the “good ole boys club” and then, when their feet are held to the fire for the words they uttered, they immediately back-pedal and deny everything, including their birth mother.

I think you have to take three things into consideration when you speak words from your mouth:

1. Do you believe it enough to stand by it?
2. Can you say it in a way that at least has some potential for being constructive instead of just critical?
3. Are you willing to be wrong and change your mind?

I know that comedians hide behind the mask of “just kidding,” but humor is much more effective when it is both funny and truthful.

I do not judge those who tell jokes by how foul their language is. I know there are people who feel the minute any “blue talk” enters the performance, that everything said is tainted and evil. I don’t agree. I don’t mind a little “street lingo” if somebody is funny, telling the truth and trying to progress us as human beings in the right direction.

I don’t like asides.

I understand why they’re used in plays–so as to make the audience aware of an inside joke or twist in plot.

But in real life, they’re often cheap and show an unwillingness to be forthcoming.

Thank you for enjoying Words from Dic(tionary) —  J.R. Practix