Saint John — Garrett Byers, 31, said he considers himself to be an easygoing guy with an excellent sense of humour, except for this one instance where a local comedian “crossed a line.”
“The joke was quite simply unfunny,” said the accountant who claims to get a good belly-laugh out of New Yorker cartoons. “Not to mention it was in poor taste. And people tell me I’m very funny, so I should know.”
The joke in question was told by local standup comedian Nate MacIntosh near the end of his set at Chuckles Lounge in Saint John. MacIntosh had the rest of the audience in stitches by saying that accountants “have a stick up their butts” and doing a vivid slapstick impression with an exaggerated walk, but Byers sat with his arms crossed, frowning.
“He completely misrepresented the reality of the situation, which is that accountants need to be organized and responsible in order to be successful in their careers… and who ever heard of comedy making use of exaggeration as a tool to get cheap laughs?” scoffed Byers. “Stick to the facts, please.”
Byers, who has absolutely no background in comedic writing or performance, added that MacIntosh should take a class or a comedy boot camp to gain a better understanding of what crowds find amusing.
The Manatee spoke with MacIntosh, who said that no matter what, there’s always one person who gets upset at each show.
“They’re havin’ a great time till one of my bits hits them a little too close to home,” he said, sipping a beer. “Then they get all up in arms, writing me angry letters about how ‘as a comedy fan,’ they know what a good joke is, and lecturing me about how ‘normally’ they love me, but they ‘expect better’ from me. It gets old, lemme tell ya.”
After the comedy show, Byers immediately went home to begin writing a long and pointless Facebook status about what constitutes a good joke, and imploring his friends to boycott all MacIntosh’s future events.
“I’m the kind of person who can even appreciate the occasional satirical story in The Onion — that’s how open-minded I am,” typed the self-proclaimed comedy buff to no one in particular.
The Manatee’s fact-checking team managed to find a comment by Byers on an Onion story just last week: “While I appreciate satire as a form of comedy, and often enjoy stories on the website, this post just isn’t good,” wrote the man who is described by friends and family as a complete bore. “And trust me, I’m very funny.”