https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2006/08/26/not-funny/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 10 Jun 2026 19:07:47 -0400<![CDATA[Some years back (okay, 33), when The Big Fix was first published, some people congratulated me on my humor. &#8220;You wrote a very funny book, y&#8217;know,&#8221; they said. I didn&#8217;t (know, that is). In fact, I was totally surprised. I hadn&#8217;t, for the most part, been trying to be humorous at all. Of course, I didn&#8217;t let that on. I was smart enough just to nod and say thanks. I parlayed that into a couple of more books in which I was trying (although perhaps not succeeding) to be a little funnier and into a career writing comedies in Hollywood for some pretty funny people, Richard Pryor and Lili Tomlin. What&#8217;s interesting is that neither of these comics was very in funny in private. Pryor especially could be quite dour, a depressed sort taken, as everyone knows, to medicating himself heavily. On stage, however, he was the funniest I ever saw because he was ruthlessly honest about himself and others. I learned from him that that was the essence of the best comedy, just being true to yourself, calling things as you geniunely see them.]]>Sat, 26 Aug 2006 15:21:36 -0400<![CDATA[Roger L. Simon]]>https://pjmedia.com/roger-l-simon/2006/08/26/not-funny-n212916