Guiding Principles

Analyzing something is a great way to enjoy it

Below are the guiding principles to Every Joke A Painting. Some are written in first person, second person, third person, some are for you, some are for myself and some are just reminders.

• Comedy is pretty good for the world

• Humor is subjective. It’s also kinda not, though

• I'm a comedy nerd. But I don't judge anyone who isn't. Duh.

• This represents my curation. If something is missing, tell me

• Comedy is art. This is art appreciation. Hence even when its monetized, it will always be free in some form

• As much as possible, EJAP is written the way I would talk to a friend.

• Each topic gets the length it deserves. Episodes aren’t optimized for growth

• Play (write) to the top of your intelligence (as they would say in Second City)

• I don't take offence to anything. But I am lucky to be exposed to a world where that is the norm. Everything is fair game and anything can be funny. But others can take offence and it’s their right

Content Selection

• Things / moments that

  • would benefit from context

  • are important to comedy

  • would benefit or be enhanced by explanation

  • need some background to be understood or enjoyed

  • deserve reliving

  • need annotation

  • would be great with commentary

  • need to be recognized as iconic

  • are well known but what happened before or after isn't

  • have fun trivia attached to them

  • are my favorite or personal delights

  • slipped through the cracks, even from those who love this stuff

  • are 11/10 (my way of saying superlative)

  • are seriously funny

More

• We are here to appreciate, not to sound smart

• The goal is to make people feel smarter, more in the know, more part of the subculture

• Separate art from artists, unless it is the point of the piece (Michael Jackson songs are great. Annie Hall is a great movie)

• Avoid chat GPT or AI to write

• No stressing about bad words. Because that is ridiculous. Imagine if Django Unchained was bleeped. Or your favorite rap song was bleeped. No word, at least in written form when discussing comedy, has any special powers. Its the intent that matters. And I think the intent is quite clearly benign.

But anyway if you made it this far, just as an exercise, read this and try not to avert your eyes. I will type out some of the worst words known to us in the current culture, at least in 2025. Words I hate mind you. The word cunt - is considered barely cheeky in Ireland. The word fag - means a cigarette in britain. The word nigger is pervasive in rap as long as the person saying it is pigmented enough. Or in a Huckleberry Finn. Or in a Tarantino movie.

I know. It hurts to read. Hurts me to read too, much less type. But I promise you, you'll get over it. I chose these 3 specifically because Louis CK opened a comedy special with a 7-minute bit on these words - Link. Funnily enough in case something in your head wished I had typed it as "the n-word" instead, his bit covers how saying "the n-word" is the dumbest of all, since in their brain the listener or reader says the word anyway.

That being said I completely understand these words among others being censored or bleeped in the publishing and broadcasting format or if there are advertisers with particular preferences etc. I will do so if I feel like it, because it might distract from the point. Episode 1 itself is about a song that was broadcasted with censoring so we will retain that.

Ok. Phew. We got past that. Everything else will be easy now. And to clarify once again, they will never be used for no reason.

Lets get going.

If you made it this far how about a palette cleanser with a super quick read #PersonalDelight piece: Tig Notaro’s Stool