I’ve been incredibly fortunate to make a number of really good friends through this blog. And many of these friendships have transcended their “virtual” boundaries and grown to be as solid and as real as any I’ve developed through traditional means.

All my blogging friends are incredibly important to me, and my life is enriched by them immeasurably. But my friendship with a chap called Greg has a particular importance to me.

You probably don’t know Greg. If you do it’s probably only because you’ve read one of my sycophantic posts about him. These days he rarely engages with the blogging world, either in comments or over on his own blog. But nearly four years ago when I first dipped my toes into blogging, he was my mentor. His was the first blog I ever read, and his were the first comments I ever received. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be doing this, and so I am truly grateful.

He also bought me my first ukulele, and therefore has incured the wrath of my entire family.

He also happens to be the funniest writer on the whole internet. His is the only blog that I’ve gone back through the entire archives and read every single post ever written. Twice. And I ended up in tears of laughter both times. And there’s a fair few posts to get through too – this guy was one of the pioneers and his first entries date back to 1999.

Unfortunately Greg’s just about given up on blogging over the past couple of years, and the internet is a far poorer place for his absence. I keep trying to persuade him to start up a joint blogging venture with me. I’d happily mothball All That Comes With It for the chance to collaborate in a trans-atlantic “Tales of Two Families” type site. But he just smiles at me, mutters various polite platitudes, and then changes the subject. Damn his eyes.

We’ve flown over to the states to visit Greg (and his fantastic wife Deb and their two kids) twice. Once in 2007 and once earlier this year. Those two visits have been amongst the best holidays I’ve had in my life – and considering that they live in deepest darkest Wisconsin that’s really saying something for their prowess as hosts. They also came over here to visit us too. Despite the distance between us, he and his family are among the Hughes’ most valued friends.

In short, I like the guy and I like his family.

I’ll stop now as I’m probably pissing him off. However in order to illustrate the man’s comedy genius I thought I’d repost a video he did for me.

Just as a quick explanation: A couple of years ago a younger, fatter, me attempted to start my own meme based around pretending to be an orangutan. Here are the rules, followed by my own video:

The Every Which Way but Loose Meme.

The rules:
1. You are auditioning to be in the latest orangutan related comedy blockbuster: Dunston Checks In II: Return of the feces flinger.
2. The Screen Actors Guild restrict non-human primates to only three facial expressions in order that they are not used as cheap substitutes for actors such as Jean-Claude Van Damme and Rosanne Barr. These are: The Raspberry, the Head Shake, and the Face Slap.
3. Create an audition video exhibiting your talent in these three areas.
4. Try and persuade some other idiots to do it too

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Now here’s Greg’s response. To quote The Holmes in the comments section of the original post: “His timing is…it’s awesome.”

I’m sorry Greg. I know you’d have rather I hadn’t posted this. But what can I say, I like to sing your praises.

Bookmark It

Related posts:

1. Day Four: Blogging Tips
2. Ten of the many, many, reasons I love my wife
3. An Alternative State of British Parent Blogging 2009

1. Day Four: Blogging Tips
2. Ten of the many, many, reasons I love my wife
3. An Alternative State of British Parent Blogging 2009