Sean Penn sort of made me laugh

Yesterday, a hilarious thing happened. Sean Penn bravely attempted to demonstrate he had a sense of humor. He took Stephen Colbert up on his challenge for a "metaphor-off," which Colbert issued after an allergic reaction to a point-blank mad speech Penn delivered last month about the president that, admittedly, was bloated with metaphor.

Robert Pinsky moderated (it's National Poetry Month!). Penn didn't have to be funny, per se. He just had to absorb Colbert's shtick, and eventually that became rather amusing as Penn's unease gradually relaxed. But Penn I'm worry that Penn has so serious, so self-serious for so long that he might be comedically challenged. Humor is some vestigial appendage of his personal character.

Maybe he's bravely refusing to live in these dark times without the protective armor of irony the rest of us do. He wants to feel what's real. And what's real right now isn't funny. Good for him. I'm not sure it's good for his art though. But maybe direct exposure to Stephen Colbert will make him reconsider lightening up, if for just one movie.

Here is Penn and Colbert's pre-"Meta-Free-Phor-All" interview.