Tortured Geniuses

People have always perceived that creative people are eccentric, to the point that we are branded with the terms weird, strange, and crazy. But we’re used to it. We can’t really help the perception because in some way, they’re right. Besides, there has always been an anecdotal link between inner turmoil and the arts.

As a writer, my catharsis usually encompasses me manipulating a bad experience into a good story plot. People like my compositions and I feel lighter after. In some ways, it’s a win-win situation for me. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, after countless short stories I flesh out from my mind, I still can’t shake the blues and no amount of writing would remedy that.

Artists usually gather from their negative experiences to produce something beautiful. And to cope with their current situation, they oftentimes dabble with substances such as alcohol and drugs. And it’s not all that new either.

The name Tortured Geniuses gets thrown to people who draw out their artistic influences from the dark. The people who inherited the name had experienced some kind of tragedy, and are maybe coping with more or less unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking, drug abuse, or even self-harm.

Comedy has been one of the most long-standing art forms that continue to entertain humanity. But sadly one of the most enduring stereotypes in all of comedy is one of the alcohol-soaked and/or drug-addled comedians.

The notion that comedians are unhinged can be traced back to the beginnings of the art. Some historians believe Charley Case, an African-American vaudeville performer, gave birth to stand-up when he started performing comic monologues without props or costuming – something that hadn’t been done before. While Case enjoyed success at that time, he lived a troubled life.

But then again, his successors had also had their fair share of battles with their demons. In the recent days, people have talked about the suicide of the comedic genius Robin Willams. Chris Farley, the Beverly Hills Ninja had died after a four-day drinking and drug binge. Chris Rock had once said that “Comedy is the blues for people who can’t sing.” The Laugh Factory added an in-house therapy program for its comics. “Eighty percent of comedians come from a place of tragedy” explains Jamie Masada, owner of Laugh Factory. “They didn’t get enough love. They have to overcome their problems by making people laugh.”

Does success in the comedy industry really depend on psychological instability? Is there scientific proof that it helps to be a little bit unstable in order to be funny? According to Pretend the World Is Funny and Forever by husband-and-wife psychotherapist team Seymour and Rhoda Fisher, the analyses revealed that most of the comedians grew up in chaotic households with critical, indifferent mothers, leading them to become obsessed with notions of good and evil, angels and demons. As the Fishers note in their book, “We would propose that a major motive of comedians in conjuring up funniness is to prove that they’re not bad or repugnant. They are obsessed with defending their basic goodness.”

A recent article in the British Journal of Psychiatry detailed the results of 523 American, British, and Australian comedians’ self-assessment tests measuring psychotic personality traits. It was found that comedians tend to score significantly higher for psychotic traits than the general population.

However it doesn’t mean that all comics are troubled. Maybe the problem isn’t with the comedians and comediennes, but the act of creating comedy. Comics are constantly disclosing problems and discussing taboo topics – because that’s what’s funny. According to McGraw’s theory of humor, the Benign Violation Theory, humor arises when something seems wrong or threatening but is simultaneously safe.

Have you ever noticed that the funny things comics say are laced with some hint of darkness? That ties up with humor being a sense of catharsis with comedians. It’s a way for them to cope up with the struggles of life. But sometimes, being funny is not enough for them to survive the stresses of life. And most of the time the world ends up losing such great talents because of these.

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