How a Mitch Hedberg joke about shaving connects with Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh's concept of inter-being

Everything is connected to everything else, so of course Mitch's joke is connected to the concept of how everything is connected to everything else, BUT ALSO THERE'S MORE TO IT! ENJOY!

Dear friends,

I am grateful you are here!
Thank you for making this choice.
And now, another entry in my project wherein I share jokes that I love and explore whether their might be even more depth to them than surface appearances may initially offer (imagine if the rest of this is me just saying “nope, all surface on this one!”).

The project began with a piece about one Mitch Hedberg joke, where I assessed Hedberg thusly:

”His jokes are songs, infinitely relistenable. Whereas so much comedy requires surprise to have its desired effect, Hedberg's has somehow transcended that.”

I now revisit another of his beautiful artworks. I hope you enjoy!

"Every time I go and shave, I assume there's someone else on the planet shaving. So I say, ‘I'm gonna go shave... too.’"
— Mitch Hedberg

I love this.

Why?

I love that Mitch Hedberg knows that he is not alone in this world.

That there are billions of other people, and there are so many similarities between us.

We are all made of carbon.
We all need food and water.
We are all alive for a limited period of time.
Many of us shave.

There are some things that everyone has in common and there are some things that make each of us unique. And in fact, the fact that each of us is unique is one of the things we all have in common.

Sometimes people say things like, "If everyone is special, then no one is special." And those people are wrong.

Here's my proof that they're wrong:

In the world of the X-Men, there are mutants and there are humans.
Mutants generally have super powers of some kind. Humans generally don't.
But imagine if all the humans left the planet.
Or all the mutants did.
Imagine a planet where it was ONLY mutants.
Only super-powered beings.
Each one with its own special super power.

Is it true that "If everyone is a mutant, then no one is a mutant"? No.
Is it true that “If everyone has a power, then no one has a power?” No.
Is it true that “If everyone is special in one way, then no one is special in any way?” No.

Mutants aren't only special in comparison to humans.
They are also special in comparison to each other.
And even if two mutants have similar powers, they don't have identical biographies, personalities, histories, or other characteristics.

And that's true for humans also.

The way you exist right here right now, the you that you are in this very moment (YOU! I’m talking to YOU!), this you has never existed before and will never exist again. That's special.

And that's true for every being in the universe.

The exact set of circumstances which led to you right here right now reading these words that I have written, that totality of circumstances has only happened once and in exactly this way, like one wave in the ocean.

We are all unique human waves in an infinite universe ocean.

Some people might complain that I'm doing the equivalent of offering everyone a participation trophy.¹

And I AM!

You get a trophy. You get a trophy. YOU get a trophy!

And the trophy is YOU.
A trophy is just a record of what you've done, and regarding participation, you’ve done it AND you're still doing it!
It's still happening!
The trophy IS the participation.
It's like the way we say the Big Bang happened billions of years ago, and also in truth it's STILL happening.
We are, all of this IS, the Big Bang, still Bigging and Banging!

Everything that's happening, everything that has ever happened, is the universe essentially playing games with itself.

Word games. Concept games. Dramatic games. Comedic games. Human games. Difficult games. Easy games. Fun games. All kinds of games.

Mitch Hedberg was a master of playing the Mitch Hedberg game.

He recognized the interconnectedness of all being, just as the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh did when he noted how a flower could not exist without sunlight, soil, rain, etc., and how a human could not exist without food, water, parents, etc.

Hanh called it "inter-being."

Mitch called it "I'm gonna go shave... too."

And capturing the universality of everything in such a unique expression like that was one of his special mutant powers.

And now, because I like sharing jokes, here are some jokes I’ve written!

A) is for A superhero joke:

There's an X-men character named Kitty Pryde.
Also, a group of small lions could be a kitty pride.

B) is for a Better name:

The X-Man named Wolverine has a power that lets him regrow missing limbs.
But wolverines can't regrow missing limbs in real life!
So his codename should be named "Starfish."

C) is for Christmas:

If Christmas is the same as Xmas,
then why isn't there a comic book called
the Uncanny Christ-men?

And that’s almost everything from me! Now for some questions for YOU!
Feel free to answer in the comments, or respond in an email, or just think about the questions real hard, or real easy, or however you want to!

1) How are you doing? What is new and good? How is your heart?
2) What is something that makes YOU unique in a way that you like?
3) What is something you have in common with others that you like?
4) If you could have a super power, what power would you enjoy having?
5) How are you doing NOW?

And that’s about it for now!
But what about for LATER?
Here are some shows I’ve got coming up!

— Waterford, MI: One Night Stan’s (TONIGHT!)
— KC, MO: The CC of KC with EMO PHILIPS! (Thurs-Sat, May 8-10)
— Minneapolis, MN: Acme Comedy Company (Wed-Sat, May 21-24)
— Bennington, VT: Bennington Theater (Saturday, June 7)
— Portsmouth, NH: The Music Hall (Thursday, June 12)
— Cambridge, MA: The Comedy Studio (2 Shows, Saturday, June 14)
— McKinney, TX: The Comedy Arena (Fri-Sat, July 18-19)
— Houston, TX: The Secret Group (Sunday, July 20)
— Austin, TX: Cap City Comedy Club (Wed-Thurs, July 23-July 24)
— Tyler, TX: Rose City Comedy (Fri-Sat, July 25-26)
— more dates to come at punchup.live/myqkaplan and myqkaplan.com/tour

Also check out this fun tour poster that my wonderful partner Rini made out of a beautiful Mindy Tucker photo of me! Hope you can make it to a show! Or if you know someone in one of these places, feel free to share!

Thank you! Much love to you and yours and all!

1. Aside: it's funny that it's usually adults complaining that kids are getting participation trophies when it's the adults who are giving kids the trophies. And I'm for it! I think whatever adult decided that kids should get participation trophies should get a trophy-giving trophy!