Comedian Calvin Trillin once defined humor by saying it was indefinable: “It's what makes the lady in the second row laugh.” You can't debate that, he said. You can't tell her, “That joke worked yesterday, you should laugh.”
No matter how you describe it, the ability to make this lady laugh is rare. But Simon Rich has it, and his latest book, “Glory Days,” is not only wildly funny and creative, but also a testament to what can happen when a writer starts out without Waze connected to his word processor.
Rich's stories don't turn directly into the disgusting. They take unexpected turns, as if Simon knows the obvious path has been taken before.
His version of the battle between David and Goliath is blown out of proportions beyond the reach of the Bible. It turns out we've all been fed a lot of nonsense. The kid didn't beat the giant. Goliath lost the match because he needed money to send his daughter to private school.
Or “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The king wasn’t angry at the boy for revealing his hypocrisy. On the contrary, he found it liberating to be naked. “All my life, I’ve been ruled by fear… Now, all that ends. Thanks to you, I’ll live a life of openness and truth.”
I have to admit that I was the least laughing lady in the second row for a Super Mario article. It was probably funny, but since I stopped playing video games after my son started beating me at Space Invaders, I had no frame of reference.
Aside from that exception, what struck me was that Rich's stories are not only funny, but also thoughtful and revealing. One is told through a participation trophy that young Rich won after a relay race, even though he ran the wrong way. He treasured it until his older brother disparaged the award, saying it was cheap, made in China, and that everyone got one.
Ironically, this fueled Rich's success; he pursued real rewards at the expense of everything else, including his family. He had no time for his children when they came to his office, quickly escorting them home. Until one day they stopped coming and he felt a sharp pain in his chest. [his] “The chest, like someone who discovers, in the middle of a relay race, that he has run in the wrong direction.”
I was amazed by Rich's ability to juxtapose a really wacky idea with a tender ending that reminded me of his “Space Invaders” days. I felt it marked a new level of maturity in his writing.
So I went back and reread one of his early books, “Hits and Misses.” I thought I could make a few comparisons that would make me look smart and maybe win me a critic's trophy.
But there was no comparison. He was always that good.
Publisher: Little, Brown. 224 pages, $28.
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