2003-06-25

I�m back in the sweet sweet land of air conditioning, and I�ve got that mid-week-holiday �It�s Monday�no wait, it�s Wednesday� disorientation. I did enjoy my time off, of course, taking advantage of the opportunity to stay up late Monday night by heading pub-wards, forgetting in my enthusiasm for school-night debauchery that Ottawa, unlike some places I�m soon to visit, is the city that always sleeps. It was a fucking ghost town Monday evening. I did run into a few friends, and we engaged in animated polemic about an age-old debate, to wit: which is funnier, a chicken or a monkey? I�ve got a soft spot for the classics, so I fall firmly on the side of the monkey � it was generally agreed-upon that the monkey has a greater repertoire, with myriad comedic possibilities arising from the potential for costume-wearing (the always-entertaining fez, for example, or a tiny cowboy hat and gun holster) and the hard-to-beat opposable thumbs, which enable the amusing manipulation/consumption of objects such as cigars, alcoholic beverages, and so forth. It is also indisputable that the monkey has the chicken beat hands down in the pox department. The chicken�s inherent humour lies in its innocence, as my friend astutely pointed out. The chicken is a straight man, its blithe imperviousness adding comedy to otherwise run-of-the-mill situations. It�s a tough call. I think the monkey got more votes in the end.