Comedy and MP3 players

While I'm on the subject of Eddie Izzard (see the story of the "naming of the blog," below), here's a small episode from this week at work. (Which is going great so far! Thanks for asking!)

I used to not do well with background noise while I was working, but I've gradually gotten to the point where I like to play my MP3 player. Actually, the thing I most like to do is play DVDs and listen to the director's commentaries and so forth. I really like the behind-the-scenes stuff on DVD commentaries, but it's pretty rare that a commentary is actually entertaining or insightful enough to merit sitting down and listening to exclusively. I find that for the average commentary, the fractional focus I can give it while I'm working is just about perfect.

Anyway... no commentaries on deck this week, so I had the MP3 player. Like most people, I have all my CDs ripped and stored in the player. This includes a couple of Eddie Izzard concert CDs I have (Glorious and Dress to Kill, if you were curious). I always have the Player on random shuffle. So usually, it's a bit from a John Williams film score, followed by an 80s one-hit-wonder song, followed by The Offspring, followed by Carmina Burana, followed by... you get the idea.

So it was the middle of the day on Wednesday, and on comes Eddie Izzard, talking about how Achilles should have encased his heel in concrete. Except then that would have given him a "radius" of effectiveness, and he'd have to be like, "hey, come over here!" (Sword stabbing sound.)

Suddenly, I want to laugh out loud. I've heard it several times before, but it's still funny. And I really need to laugh. I decide spontaneous laughter cutting through the silence might not be the best thing. So I try to stifle it. Unfortunately, what ends up coming out is this weird quarter-snort.

Ok, so now one option is I can stop and try to explain this weirdness. But you've seen how long it's taken for me to explain it to you, and I haven't even done that good a job. So that's not looking like the best option. Or, I can try and pretend like I was sneezing or something. And I'm actually seriously considering this option when I look over and see the only other guy in the room with me also has his headphones on, and is blissfully ignorant of the whole event.

So, if you listen to comedy on your MP3 players in a public place (especially if it's Eddie Izzard), know that you do so at your own risk.