The MYMan Solution by Helen Phillips, 2016
The magic trick:
Building a funny situation on a very sad – even dark – premise
This is a funny story. That really isn’t a subjective call. It’s pretty much a definitive. It is a comedy. It will make you laugh. It’s certainly filthy.
However, it’s impossible, even from the very beginning, to divorce the jokes from the very dark root of the humor. The protagonist here has rejected physical affection. OK. As the plot thickens, though, it becomes increasingly clear that it isn’t so much a rejection as a substitution. The fact that the substitution is a, well, a MYMan, is funny. It’s also very sad. Which, if your humor is like mine, just makes it funnier. It’s a confusing mix. And that’s quite a trick on Phillips’s part.
The selection:
MYMan is first generation. Yes, I paid an arm and a leg. But I got two arms and two legs, as I like to say to my friends. Things will surely change and improve in future generations, and I can’t deny that I will probably be first in line to upgrade to a newer, better MYMan.
However, there’s something about MYMan. A few days ago a malfunction surfaced. If I asked, “Do you love fucking me?” he’d reply, “Do you have to go to the bathroom?” still reacting to my previous statement.
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