Ten years of writing about nothing
I love flipping through the television channels and stumbling upon my old favorite shows. My favorite comedy TV series of all time is “Frasier” because of its insanely talented actors, spot-on casting and incredibly witty banter. I’ll go years without watching it, then binge an entire season and laugh as if I hadn’t seen any of the episodes 20 times before!
I enjoyed “Seinfeld,” too, and was thinking about it the other day because it was often described as “a show about nothing.” When asked about that description, Jerry Seinfeld revealed that the real pitch for the show was to demonstrate how comedians get their material. The ’90s comedy went on to regularly feature friends sitting in a diner chatting about menial everyday things in life, and it struck a chord with the audience and became a smash success.
That description made me laugh because I’ve written this column for the Observer-Reporter for around a decade now, and it’s the column about nothing! I laugh when someone tells me they love reading it because I feel as if I write about nothing. I love that my editor lets me write about whatever everyday menial topic happens to cross my mind.
The first column I ever wrote was inspired by one of my favorite columnists and writers, the late Erma Bombeck. My mom used to read her columns all the time and laugh, and I enjoyed them right along with her. One of her funniest was a riff on imagining a choice of being married to Danny DeVito or Robert Redford and would your choice change depending on whether one of them were willing to clean the house for you. She said she’d still choose a young Robert Redford and would just dust around him. I thought that was one of the funniest lines I’ve ever read.
Dave Barry’s writing also always makes me laugh along with humorist Joel Stein, who wrote a column in Time magazine for years. When he left Time in 2017, he signed off saying, “Since my first column, 19 years ago, readers and co-workers have clamored to have me fired.” I can’t say with any certainty that no one has clamored to have me fired, but I surely hope they have not because I still enjoy writing in this space and getting paid for it.
When I started writing this column all those years ago, I never imagined that anyone would really like it that much or that I would continue doing it for this long.
I still have a lot of fun coming up with “nothing” to write about every other week, and I appreciate every one of you who takes the time to read my silly musings. Hopefully they put a smile on your face, give you a good laugh and will continue for years to come!
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.