Our shared misery works to spark creativity

My name is Jeremy Kaplowitz and I’m here at Binghamton University so that I can appease my parents for four years and then throw it all away to become a starving-artist-comedian-type until that doesn’t pan out. You may have seen me at a Bing Stand Up show, or opening at the Dollar Show for your friends who forced you to see a cappella, or opening for the wonderful Ron Swans — I mean Nick Offerman — during Family Weekend, or walking around campus wrapped up in my own ego and self-deprecation. I’m someone who thinks that comedy is very important — probably way more important than it actually is — because I think it brings us together and serves as a catalyst for change by pointing out what is absurd and what is funny. Also, laughing is fun.

This year, Nick Offerman came to Binghamton for Family Weekend and sold out the Events Center. Three thousand people paid money to be disappointed by the fact that a man they saw on “Parks and Recreation” didn’t say, “Give me all the eggs and bacon you have.” Last year Demetri Martin came and sold over 2,000 tickets. The year before, Lewis Black’s show marked the start of a trend in which the Student Association books high-profile comedians to perform in the Events Center during Family Weekend. Binghamton students seem to love comedy, and we come out to see comedians in huge numbers the more and more we are exposed to them.

But Binghamton is also a productive hub of comedy. Despite the fact that the University really only showcases whichever Baldwin graced Binghamton with his presence decades ago, there’s a whole bunch of way more talented alumni who no one seems to know about.

Just to name a few: Madeleine Smithberg is the co-creator of “The Daily Show” (or the show that you and your friends simply call “The News”). Carol Leifer is a stand-up comedian and writer who was also the inspiration for Elaine from Seinfeld. Art Spiegelman, the creator of the terrific satirical graphic novel “Maus,” got his start drawing comics for Pipe Dream. Andy Kindler is a very famous stand-up comedian who was a judge on “Last Comic Standing” and featured in recurring roles on “Maron” and “Bob’s Burgers.”

And Paul Reiser. Seriously, Paul Reiser. In 2004, Comedy Central named him the 77th greatest stand-up comedian of all time. He got his start at the Hinman Production Company.

But we only care about Flo. Not even Stephanie Courtney, a comedian from Binghamton University who went on to be a member of the famous comedy troupe The Groundlings. You may know her from her role as Flo.

So how does Binghamton end up rearing some of the most talented and influential comedians in the country? We don’t really have the institutions for comedy outside of the Pappies and Bing Stand Up. Other schools like Harvard and NYU are actually proud of their comedians and funnel them into success. Colin Jost went from writing at the Harvard Lampoon to immediately being hired as a writer for SNL. Now he’s the head writer and the face of Weekend Update. It’s kind of a trope at this point that wealthy white men write college comedy in sweater vests at their Ivy League schools and then graduate into fame.

You may think it’s weird that I include Binghamton as a place where comedy is grown in the same paragraph as schools that people actually want to go to. That’s the point.

Self-deprecation is the key to comedy. Binghamton is a school full of kids who were smart in high school but then slacked off and/or didn’t want to pay too much for school. We all ended up in this sad excuse for a city that we joke about being the fourth most depressed in the country and the second most obese. We’re coping with the fact that we’re here and it brings us closer together as a community. And then when someone from Cornell says “Ha! Binghamton sucks!” we say “Go fuck yourself.”

Binghamton forces us to be creative through its tolerable bullshit. When construction on campus turns the University into a labyrinth or the math department is terrible, these hardships are the glue that keeps our school together. It’s comedy. It’s the source of the one connection that everyone shares.

One of the amazing things about our school is the abundance of driven clubs and communities. Would we have so much going on if we didn’t have such a pile of bullshit driving us to be creative? Why aren’t there that many famous comedians from Buffalo or Geneseo or Albany? The same middle class New Yorker kids attend these schools, but if you google “notable alumni Albany University,” go to the Wikipedia, and ctrl-f “comedian” there are zero results.

Because Binghamton is a place that forces us to be creative and connect with each other, we have this amazingly rich history of successful comedians. Harvard, NYU, Chicago, UCLA, Binghamton. It’s insane to me that I can end a list of schools like that with one that recently put out a warning about meth houses Downtown.

Let’s be creative, let’s be funny, let’s be proud of all of the artists who have been in our exact same position. Let’s take something that may not have been the best situation and use it to bring us closer together and fuel a drive that makes our college experience not only worthwhile, but extraordinary. And most of all, let’s continue to churn out some of the greatest comedic minds in our country’s history.

Also, holy shit, Paul Reiser went to Binghamton. Do people not realize how big of a deal that is? Fuck Billy Baldwin.

– Jeremy Kaplowitz is a senior majoring in Economics