Punchline

I’ve read a lot of biographies of comedians and funny people. One common trait most of them have is how they use humor as a mechanism to cope with pain and suffering. While most people will scream, rant and bawl their eyes out, these people would rather spin things around and make it into a joke, a funny anecdote.

I remember the 1988 movie Punchline, an early Tom Hanks starrer (with Sally Fields in her post-“You like me! You really, really like me!” mode). Hanks plays this guy whose dream was to be a stand-up comic, but his doctor-father wants him to follow in his medical footsteps. In one pivotal scene, Hanks delivers a star-making, gut-wrenching performance: one night as he stepped onstage to deliver his routine, he spied his father enter the comedy club and sit down to watch him. At first he stammered and faltered with his routine. Seeing that his routine was dying, he started talking about his father, how his dad once tried to make him interested in medicine by waving a dead pet in front of him, terrifying him to bits. What was fantastic about that scene is how Hanks managed to spit out his rage towards his father while trying to put a comic spin on his story. Of course no one was laughing throughout the scene, but everyone was riveted. It was such a powerful soul-baring scene.

When I saw that scene, I thought, wow, astig. I think it was then that I made a conscious decision: I will wield humor as a sword and shield.

Tom Hanks was never nominated for that role. Maybe it’s because his character falls for Sally Field (playing a married mom). Ewww. She may get top billing because she was the bigger star then, but the movie totally belonged to Hanks.