I was 37. Sweat rolled from under my helmet and onto the rim of my glasses before it fell to the concrete. The intense heat didn't help, as the sun reflected off the bowl. My breath, slow and labored. My red helmet was covered with stickers, and it helped people spot me from afar. Honestly, I thought my larger body did enough of that, but as a part of this contest, I just looked like some kid's dad. I was a competitor, and I just had the run of my life.

Absurdity is a wide genre of comedy that encapsulates comedy at its finest. From the slapstick absurdity of the Three Stooges to the intellectual absurdity of Monty Python and the quick absurdity of most improv shows, comedy is absurdity at its core. It takes the premise of a serious situation and takes it "up to eleven." Every comedy writer knows how to take something bland and make it absurd.