Solemnity

Solemnity

“Solemnity: The state or quality of being serious and dignified.”

So who decides what “dignified” is then? Is that saying that humorous people can never be dignified? The thing about solemnity is that it is so tightly associated with being serious that it is often used in the same way. When a writer is writing a script for a situation comedy that he wishes to propose to the BBC, is he being serious or not?

Obviously he is. Obviously Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant were serious when they were writing The Office. Obviously John Cleese and Connie Booth were serious when they wrote Fawlty Towers. Obviously Billy Connolly was serious when he wrote his stand up shows. Any genius is serious when he/she works.

           Solemnity has no place in this world. John Cleese said: “Solemnity feeds pomposity.” And he’s right. It’s just dick heads trying to act “proper”. It’s like when somebody tells a crude joke, and some Dickens reading, scarf wearing wanna-be Oxford student pipes up and goes: “Oh, I don’t think that’s entirely appropriate.”

          Oh shut the fuck up point Dexter. Nobody gives a shit what you think. Who fucking decides what’s “appropriate” and what isn’t? I handed in a university essay last year, and in it I had put a John Lennon line. Can’t remember which one, but it fit nicely with the decor of the points I was making. I thought at least it might make the marker laugh. I had an email 2 days later, from this tutor saying he didn’t think it was: “an appropriate line for an academic essay.”

          I emailed back saying: “Then mark me down for it. But honestly, if you that essay will be made better by deleting it, you must be the least creative person ever.” It’s the idea that you have to be pompous to be creative. Where was I when it was decided that everything academic must be taken seriously? Tell you what you high brow pieces of shit, you have your Universities. But your shit at writing. Lighten up. Twats.