Is it wrong that I think San Francisco is not a funny city? Worse, is it wrong that I think San Francisco is a city that fancies itself quite funny, but absolutely isn’t? (Have you ever known a person like that? He or she usually works in retail, or advertising account management.) I really don’t know where this prejudice came from, and I fully acknowledge its shakiness, but when I think about San Francisco and humor, the visual that pops into my mind is this:
I know it’s not fair, just as it’s not fair that I think everyone in Washington D.C. thinks political parody songs performed in the ragtime style are funny. (I sometimes picture this kind of music blasting from people’s SUVs in D.C. or pumping so loudly from someone’s home stereo that their upstairs neighbor calls them and says, “Please do something about the music. I can scarcely hear my PDQ Bach over your infernal racket!”)
Also, and totally unrelated – perhaps just to take the heat off what I just said – holy shit these are good:
