All the news that's fit to laugh at

Guest blogger Jason Sanford often rants on his website at www.jasonsanford.com. His fiction has been published in Interzone, Year's Best SF 14, Analog, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Pindeldyboz, and other places, and has won the 2008 Interzone Readers' Poll and a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship.

Yesterday my interview with SF writer Larry Eisenberg was published at SF Signal. One thing I like about Larry's fiction is even when he's writing about serious subjects, he's not afraid to make the reader laugh. Yes, Larry's aware there are plenty of problems in the world, as anyone who reads or watches the news also knows. But sometimes laughing at the news is the best way to understand the news, as Jon Stewart has proved with the Daily Show.I believe Larry Eisenberg also understands this. For the last year, his witty limericks have been gracing the comment sections of The New York Times website, gaining him a cult following among that paper's readers. Larry has given me permission to reprint a few of his limericks.Enjoy, and let the humor of the news wash over you.Larry wrote this limerick below an article about the new Jim Carrey Christmas Carol movie:

Of Jim Carrey I am so wary,Toward mugging I am quite contrary,My Dickensian whimPrefers Alastair Sim,So much for new film commentary.

When Maureen Dowd hypothesized in her column “Blue Is the New Black" that women were unhappier than men, Larry's response was:

Are there sorrows Women can't express,The things Husbands do that depress?Is it more complex.Even beyond Sex?Having more fun, enjoying it less?

When Frank Rich describes Sarah Palin as a pit bull in a china shop, naturally Larry can't let that pass:

White & non-urban,Sarah's disturbin',She's paving the Demagogue's way,Tea Bagger attractor,Pro-Progress detractor,You betcha, she won't go away.There's books to be sellin',Her lies are compellin',So vital, so eager, so fey,She radiates power,Gun-handy, no flower,You betcha she won't go away!

When depressing news threatens to wash me away, the first thing I do is turn to the NY Times comment section. It's a sure bet Larry has already found the humor in the day's news, and by laughing at the news we not only understand it better, we can put the dang stuff into some well-needed perspective.