On Chris Hughes, Adam Hills, and why you should know them both

If you don’t know who Chris Hughes is, don’t worry. It will be revealed. If you don’t know who Adam Hills is, however, you should worry, especially if you’re Australian. If you’re not Australian (like me, incidentally), it's not terribly strange if you don’t know who Adam Hills is, but it nevertheless is a shame. You see, Adam Hills is quite possibly the funniest man on the planet.


Yes I shamelessly love him and adore him, and I will soon reveal why, but first, let me tell you how we met.

Do you know my friend Ylva? No? She is also a very funny person (but not a man, so she is definitely not the funniest man on the planet), and I happen to know she occasionally reads my blog because she (like me, incidentally) is in the unfortunate self-inflicted hell of thesis-writing. Sort-of self-inflicted, seeing as we won’t get the jobs we want without an education. Not that we will get any jobs anyway…

When not using my blog for procrastination material, Ylva is a real champion on Facebook and YouTube. (She is also a real champion when it comes to thesis-writing, and motherhood, and friendship and stuff, but that is besides the point.) She occasionally shares the results of her talent for finding weird (often Australian, for some reason) YouTube videos on Facebook with me. Thus Ylva introduced me to Adam (remember him? I was about to tell you how we met? This was how we met…) Hills.

After having spent ridiculous amounts of time forcing myself not to blurt out in laughter in public because I was watching Adam Hills’ show “Joymonger and Characterful”on YouTube when I really should be working, I forgot how to end this long sentence. No, wait, here we go. After having watched “Joymonger and Characterful”, I realized that even though I had spent the entire time laughing (I might warn you – while most of it is ‘general funny’, some of it is ‘Australia funny’. You might not think that a Norwegian who has never visited Australia would be able to enjoy ‘Australia funny’ any better than you can [unless you are, of course, Australian yourself. In which case I assume you have ‘Australia funny’ in the roots {*snort* If you didn’t understand what was funny about that I am officially declaring myself as more ‘Australia savvy’ than you, regardless of the amount of time you may have spent there}]. Be aware, though, that this Norwegian has had hours of practice from watching “The Chaser’s War on Everything”. I even know my fair share of Aussie domestic politics because of the Chaser). Anyway – I should try to finish this sentence soon…

After having watched “J&C” I realized that even though I had spent the entire time laughing, it was a different kind of laughing. Because Adam Hills is never mean. It’s hard these days, isn’t it, to do comedy without being mean. Whenever I try to be funny, for instance, I cause terrible psychological damage to grammar and parentheses. It is unavoidable. Yet Adam (I almost feel we’re on a first-name basis by now) Hills (only almost) manage to be hilarious without his jokes mocking anyone, really, with the possible exception of himself. Because he does have an incredible sense of self-irony.

There is a lot of Adam Hills on YouTube, but once I had seen most of it I decided I wanted more. As it is pretty darned difficult to stalk people who are living on the other side of the planet, I was thrilled to find that Adam has a blog! I was even more thrilled to learn that during his current tour – appropriately named “Mess Around” – he would be posting summaries from each show on his blog.

I’ve read, I’ve laughed, and I’ve wished I could be there. In writing moment, Adam Hills (must try to get on first-name basis soon) is performing in Melbourne. While I don’t know a lot of people in Australia (notable exceptions include a couple of Harry Potteriacs, and then the guys from the Chaser, but I guess it is a stretch to say I know them…), I do know someone in Melbourne. I am currently trying to convince her to go see Adam (yay!), but she has so far been busy doing other things, like trying to get a job (nay!) Hello! Priorities!

I believe I have introduced Adam properly now, so let’s move on to Chris. Chris Hughes was the (un)fortunate audience member of one of Adam’s early shows in Melbourne who was picked by the comedian to become famous. More famous than Shiloh Jolie Pitt (one of the many childlings of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, otherwise known as Brangelina), who is famous for being famous and thus not actually all that interesting.

Chris Hughes, on the other hand, will be famous for stripping on Federation Square (in Melbourne, I can only assume) if Adam Hills manages to raise at least 20 000 Australian dollars by the end of the ongoing 2010 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Even though the cause of getting someone to embrace their nudity is good on its own (or what do you say, Tami?), Chris Hughes only agreed to do this if the money raised will go to the Simon Rhoden Foundation which is aiding people with cystic fribrosis.

Once I had read the blog, I immediately found the Official Chris Hughes Fanclub on Facebook and joined. I don’t have any particular interest in making Chris Hughes famous. I do think the Simon Rhoden Foundation sounds like a worthy cause. I am slightly infatuated with Adam Hills (even if we’re back on using his full name…).

But in reality there is another reason why I support this project. I love the kind of dugnadsånd (I have explained the meaning of this on a previous occasion) it creates. People are coming together to work for the greater good, whether they believe this greater good as raising money for a charity, making a man strip or deranking Shiloh as a celebrity. In a way, Adam Hills’ effort (and method of choice) to make Chris Hughes famous is the power of the internet materialized (and in a strange way it reminds me of the enthusiasm displayed on http://www.onemilliongiraffes.com/ – way to sneak a giraffe into this post as well, Cruella!). Because of the internet, a girl is right now sitting in the rather uninteresting city/town of Kongsvinger in Norway, doing her best to pull the few strings available to her to promote an Australian comedian’s latest stunt.

This poster was made, in true dugnadsånd, by other audience members from one of Adam Hills’ shows. It can be downloaded from his blog, and Adam Hills strongly encourages YOU to do so, print it out and hang it up wherever you may be. If you then take a picture of it (I will!) and send it to Adam (Hills), he might mention it on his blog (or even in one of his shows - who knows [accidental rhyme])!



So, whether you are a regular reader or a random stopper-by (I ought to get a few of those seeing as I have the randomest collection of googlable search words assembled in this post – many of my first-time visitors come from some very weird google searches indeed…), I strongly encourage you to visit and join the Chris Hughes Fanclub on Facebook; to seek out Adam Hills on YouTube (or if you’re lucky enough to be in Australia – check his blog for tour dates); and to print out the Chris Hughes poster and hang it up somewhere.

Finally, in the spirit of the dugnad, I’d like to try to start another quest. As mentioned, I currently have another friend (mutual friend of Ylva and me, actually) staying in Melbourne. This is, also as mentioned, where Adam is performing shows, right now! While the quest to make Chris Hughes famouser (alright, more famous) than Shiloh Jolie Pitt is certainly an extremely worthy cause, I also think that making Ida going to a show with Adam Hills (or possibly the Chris Hughes strip night) is almost as good a cause. I don’t know if Ida is reading my blog (I might persuade her to do so), but I’d nevertheless like to appeal to her through the blogging community: Ida! Make sure to show up to be my extended link to Adam (first name!)!