Bye, Bye, Barry, Goodbye

The biggest news to hit the humor world in a while was an unanticipated announcement by Dave Barry that he would be taking a leave of absence from his weekly humor column. He was not making this up.

To the journalist world this was as shocking as the Pope announcing he is taking an indefinite leave from the Vatican, or a veteran politician announcing that he is taking sabbatical leave from Congress.

Who is Dave Barry? Oh, I love you if you are reading my column and don’t know the answer to that! He is the Miami Herald columnist who is kingpin, top banana, big cheese, head honcho, and the role model guru of the humor columnist world. All other humor writers are measured by how they compare to Dave Barry.

Guess that puts me so low on the totem pole that I don’t even need to look for my yardstick.

Dave Barry is the only humor columnist EVER to win a Pulitzer Prize for writing, and he didn’t even know he was running. Never mind that it was
years ago. He still holds the championship humorist title, which is better than having first rights to the remote control.

Is he really that good - or that much better than the rest? Most of us don’t think so, and wonder how 500 editors can be so wrong. On the other hand, it is nice that humor writing was once recognized as a worthwhile endeavor - even if only once.

Dave Barry broke the glass ceiling for humor writers and made it a
worthwhile effort instead of an worthless endeavor. Because of him and a few other greats, such as Lewis Grizzard and Erma Bombeck, humor has become recognized as the artistic endeavor that it is, proving that our mothers were wrong and we are not hopeless losers who can’t get a real job.

Many columnists write for nearly nothing just to get exposure. We hope the Miami Herald has a bulldozer and is ready for an avalanche of resumes. His absence will leave a great, gaping hole that other humor writers hope to fill with funny columns.

Thing is, no one can replace Dave Barry. Fact is, a writer worth their
pencil lead doesn’t want to. Writing is personal and individual. We each develop our own style if we ever hope to excel, and don’t try to be just like someone else. No one has filled the hole left when Erma Bombeck died - though many are still trying.

Dave says he is worn out from covering the Democratic and Republican conventions, the Olympics, and going on a book tour all in one year. Poor
baby! Most humor writers will never be sent anywhere by anyone to write humor about anything. But the thing is we will still write our humor. Writing humor isn’t a choice. We do it because we have to.

So, goodbye Dave! We’re going to miss you. We read you, we laughed with you, we loved you, we envied you, we admired you - and to tell the truth, we still do. But we can't help but think that without the syndicated domination of one person, maybe a bit of sunshine will fall on those who have been in the shadows, and who knows what creative talent may eventually bloom?

And if anyone out there knows an editor with a hole to fill where a
syndicated column used to be - I’m available! When you’re not Dave Barry, you try harder. If you call and I don’t answer, just leave a message. I’ll be out the back yard whittling a brand new totem pole.