To start this off, i’m going to say that I usually only use this page to post comedy articles. A little piece of humorous (and sometimes thought provoking) relief that can help take a reader’s mind off of the troubles of the world. Obviously none of it is to be taken TOO seriously (depending on the topic of the article). This article will break away a little from that.
This is going to be the first in a series of articles i’m writing where i’ll just talk about anything from the past week. Doesn’t mean it will be current events, it could be dealing with certain feelings or just random stuff I want to write about. Will this be the main attraction of this page? Of course not. But I want to improve my serious writing, as well as connect with my audience in a way that is bit more like having a conversation. In my comedy, you can learn about me from what I decide to parody or bring to light. In these articles, it will be said more direct.
For my first personal article, I wanted to talk about why I started doing my comedy articles. This page wasn’t originally comedic-fueled. When I was originally asked to begin writing for Odyssey, I did entertainment reviews. My first one I ever did was on the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, and then one more on Pokemon Go. Looking back on them, I always give a big cringe at them. They weren’t bad articles, but they weren’t my writing. Comedy is what I want to do in my life, so it made zero sense as to why I was reviewing what was popular at the time.
Being a storyteller is an opportunity I will take over anything else. Going against the grain is also something I enjoy to do. When it came to looking at other people’s articles I always noticed most were about the same topics.
Certain tropes and formulas are created through people constantly talking about the same subjects. Race, war, politics, gender. All important topics for someone who wants to know what is going on around them… but should all content creators be stuck on just those topics? Just because someone is intelligent enough to think about these subjects, should they constantly need to prove they have pondered them to the entire world? Well, to put it simply, “no”.
I tried that out and to be frankly, I found it quite boring. Take a current event, talk about it. That was far too close to a middle school homework assignment to my liking. I’m a comedian and a storyteller. I can talk about current events, but that isn’t what I want my writing to be. Good for getting views, bad for not wanting to blow my brains out while writing. I strive to create, not just report.
My current event writing was uninspired and my entertainment reviews were monotonous and parallel to millions before them. I finally decided that regardless of what was popular to talk about, I just wanted to write an article that was designed to do nothing more than make someone laugh. I released How to Tell if Your Significant Other is Defecting to Russia (which check it out, if you haven’t read it) and have been doing Onion-esque articles ever since.
These articles are just little pieces of myself I want to share with the world. If you want to laugh, just ignore these ones. If you’d like to know my opinion on some unconventional topics, well, just keep reading this series of articles. Either way you are one sexy motherfucker. You should be told that more often;)
-Ethan Stone Hatfield
