Advice for Day 10: Self-Deprecation Doesn’t Equal Funny; it Equals Sad

I like to blame it on Midwest; a place where confidence is cockiness and self-deprecation is akin to godliness. It is the Midwest that infused my resume and cover letter with self-deprecation, humorous and occasionally LOL self-deprecation, but still pathetic and un-hireable self-deprecation.

This weekend, while watching a local band bash themselves on stage, I realized that self-deprecation isn’t really that funny; it is actually just kind of sad… and unprofessional and painful to watch.

“The only one to come see us play is our mothers,” cliché, untrue (your sister and girlfriend were there as well) and pathetic.



“I swear we sound better after a few drinks,” cliché, untrue (I had a few and my friends had a few more and none of us thought you sounded any better) and very pathetic.

“We are drunken-live-my-our-parents-high-school-dropouts who can’t give up the dream of smoking pot all day and writing songs about smoking pot all day. Thanks for coming to see our show.” OK so they didn’t say this last one but they might as well have because that is how they appeared to all three of us in the audience who weren’t somehow related to them.

And that is how I sound when I joke about my awful Spanish accent or getting bailed out of jail. It is not so much funny as it is cliché, untrue and very, very pathetic.

Because the truth is I rock. In fact I kick ass. I can report, write, edit, re-edit. I am talented, professional and worth hiring. And no I am not being cocky, you killjoy of the Midwest; I am being honest.