{Shane Sevo.com}

Archive for the 'Humor' category

Despair…

December 9, 2009 2:02 pm

Social Media: Unlocking the Awesome Potential of Behavioral Disorders

Demotivation and pessimism have never been as inspiring as the creative work of Despair Inc. The balancing force against cynicism in life seems to be humor and the folks at Despair continually find the comical critique just underneath everything that bugs me about our modern culture saturated in mantras of professionalism, commercialism, humanism, and out right stupidity.

Satire can actually be a very gracious art form, allowing us to swim through the currents of ridiculousness with at least a tacit nod and smile at the common mistakes of being human and misplacing our hopes in ideas that could never possibly deliver on their promises.

The product catalogs from Despair remain one of the true treasures of mail campaigns that I savor. Every time one of these shows up in my mailbox, I giddily flip through pages of past work and enjoy the new couplings of photographic irony and descriptive labeling.

As I laugh and share their creativity with others, somehow the fatigue of trying to swim against the stream of modern culture is relieved for a moment and I can chuckle, sigh, and be human again. Yes, I did buy the T-shirt… and the pessimism mug… I know, even the cynics need to get paid.

Despair Inc.

Categories: Despair, Humor
No Comments »

The Humans are Dead and its Fun…

April 30, 2009 5:02 pm

Thanks to a friend of mine’s nimble ticket purchasing mouse clicks myself and several of my best friends were able to take in a show of the “Flight of the Choncords“, if you have never heard of them, just know they are the 4th best band in New Zealand. The humor is understated, self deprecating, and occasionally a bit vulgar… but in more moments than not it slays me.

I laughed, cried, and hit the seat of the poor guy in front of me for the duration of the two hour show. My friends were amused at my enjoyment, and for a moment I paused to consider if I should have laughed at everything that night. Most likely not, but in that moment I was consoled by a reminder of the immediate value of anything that allows us to whimsically forget ourselves and enjoy life.

Could God be more pleased by 5 minutes of our selfless enjoyment of the most trivial activity than 1000 hours of begrudged self conscious community service?

Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.

~The ScrewTape Letters, Chapter 9