Nothing Is Too Serious For A Joke
Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 10:59 amYesterday was my second fire warden training in three years. I’m happy to do it as the chance of a building fire is pretty darn low and I get a cool orange vest that makes me look like an inmate. The only difference in the training this time was the addition of video from the deadly fire of The Station nightclub in 2003 where 100 people lost their lives including the lead guitarist of Great White.
The video did its job. Between the audio of people screaming and watching the place be consumed by fire in a little over 90 seconds, the mood of the class had gone from slightly amused impatience at having to be there to eerie silence. The firewoman teaching the class had warned us it was harrowing, but no one was really prepared it.
She gave us a few facts about what had happened that night and then asked if we could think of anything that could have been done differently to have stopped this tragedy. After a few seconds of silence, I decided that it was time to ease the mood in the room. I turned to the teacher and said, “They should have hired Mannheim Steamroller instead.”
I am such a saint.
Read more slightly inappropriate things over at humor-blogs.com.
Listening to: “Night Sight” - Air
November 8th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Good job! I would have gone with Andy Williams, but great minds, etc.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
The crowd skewed young so I had to go with a more modern Andy Williams.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I would have went with Yanni.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Oh god… I just found that video via a link on the Wikipedia page and watching it made me sickto my stomach. Maybe there are some things that are too serious for a joke.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Ah hahahahahahaha. Lord, bringing fun back to tragedy.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Scott: That would have been good, too. You can see why I ad to crack some joke for myself, too. Call it a defense mechanism.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Bossy: As you may well know. Comedy = Tragedy + Time.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
everything is funny after 21 years.
Could have been worse though, Phil Specter could have been the manager. :)
November 8th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Naw, then only the women would have died.
Meow.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I woulda went with Kenny G, but I think it’s funny.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
See that’s funny, too. I guess I should qualify the Mannheim Steamroller. Former member of Monkey’s Uncle, Mike Sjerven, had a joke in his stand-up routine about his cousin getting a job as the pyrotechnics engineer for Mannheim Steamroller. That’s why I had Steamroller on the brain.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
[...] as a fire warden, Howard fights the growing national trend toward being way too serious over at the Web Pen Blog. Sometimes he does both. - It’s from the archives but I still enjoy this clip. And I still [...]
November 12th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Class-ic!
November 13th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Meh, I try.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I’ve never trusted Mannheim Steamroller. I think they’re up to something. What’s the steamroller all about, anyway? If they were the band it would have been a strange noxious gas or something. Trust me on this. Beware the Steamroller!
November 13th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I hear ya, brother! Run!