On a whim last night, I dipped into Jai Thai's Punchline Comedy show, a Capitol Hill mainstay of funny business. Truth be told, I could really use the laughs... because Trump, Sessions, Roy Moore, Louis C.K., etc. Attendance was low when I arrived around 11 pm; the crowd seemed mainly to consist of performers. From what I could gather, the program bestows three-minute sets to each participant. I caught three comics. Maybe "endured" is the better word.

The first one flipped around her just-colored blue and black hair to reveal the different hues. "I call this color 'bruise,'" she said, to paltry laughter. She confessed she'd recently come out as bi and riffed on how that went over with her family. The audience reacted wanly.

The second comic, a white woman who also stated her bi status, offered some mildly amusing observations about how sex with people of your own gender is better than hetero sex. Then, inexplicably, she spent the next two minutes making annoying squeals and gestures of futility that sent a couple of audience members into giggling fits... and me to the bathroom to escape the inanity.

The third standup, a white guy in his 20s who was dressed like a stereotypical hiphop stan, told some jokes about living in Seattle while being poor. When nobody laughed at the last bit about his cat, he said, "Come on, laugh! That was funny as fuck." With that, I made my way to the exit, embarrassed to be a member of the human race. This was not helping me to forget how shitty the world is.

Some of my colleagues at The Stranger dismiss, nay disparage, Seattle's comedy scene, but somehow I harbor more optimism about it. I will continue to monitor our town's sanctuaries of humor, because in the name of all that is unholy, I really need the laughs, now more than ever.