Reminding people about their drab, wretched, torturously monotonous, and spirituallly meaningless lives with good humor and fun.
People in the variety and circus arts, physical theater, eccentrics, samurais, charlatans, mountebanks, novelty musicians, inventors of experimental musical instruments, people cursed with extreme intellectual curiosity, and anyone who doesn't hesitate to call themselves interesting.
Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies, Foreign Film Soundtracks, Ragtime, Leon Redbone, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, Fletcher Henderson, The Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Cheap Suit Serenaders, John Gill's New Orleans Novelty Orchestra, and other toe-tapping good time music played at 78 rpm. On the lighter side: Tom Waits and The Tigerlillies.
I am really going to think about this and list them ALL!
SCTV, Freaks and Geeks, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Smothers Brothers, Sgt. Bilko, The Honeymooners, The Munsters. Let's be honest...any show in black and white.
Haven't been reading much lately; Currently, I am hooked on the manga series BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL. The ethical and moral struggles of an immortal samauri is damn fine reading.
Karl Valentin, Bertoldt Brecht, Bob and Ray, The Ritz Bros., The Marx Bros., A. Robins: The Banana Man, Charlie Frye, Grock, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy, Peter Sellers, Fatty Arbuckle, Barry Lubin, Spike Jones, Nutz and Bolts: a.k.a The Nitwits, and anyone who dares to pursue what is really important to them.