A Woman Trapped

There are few men in our lives that we encounter that have the ability to shape our identities and define who we become. If we are lucky these men are our fathers or our political leaders. Other times we find these men in our sports arenas or on the screen. For me, Richard Jeni was one of thse men.

A self-described platypus man (I am unsure if he had webbed feet) Mr. Jeni first appeared in my life in the early 1990s and his 1.5 hour comedy special on HBO was no less than absolutely stellar. Indeed, Mr. Jeni is a man who worked in a woman's shoe store with hilarious results (one woman's foot is reported to have been a canoe), introduced us to Captain Obvious (getting tackled by a 300 pound man hurts), demonstrated to us what it is like to be a bachelor (we all knew macaroni and cheese was delicious, but who could imagine it was so funny?) and explained that he often felt he was a woman trapped in a man's body, but never had the proper outlet to express his entrapment (if only he was a real NFL referee!).

Perphaps it was Mr. Jeni's inability to be who he really was, or maybe it was his complete lack of any semblance of a sense of humor post Platypus Man (see "aristocrats" or most recent HBO special) but Mr. Jeni died today when he took a gun to himself blowing his face off. (omitted is tasteless joke regarding finding what remained of mr. jeni's sense of humor)

Depsite what may appear to be a callous attitude toward Mr. Jeni's apparent suicide, it does makes me sad. He brought me many an outstaindg afternoon with good friends and to this day I still quote "the routine."

Dear Mr. Jeni, you will be missed (although because we have your funny routine on video, not that much).

Caveat: absent exigent circumstances not known to the author at the time of publication (i.e., Mr. Jeni was an exitentialist who had outlived his usefulness), the author does not have much sympathy for people that committ suicide, although he does feel especially bad for those that loved and cared for the deceased.