Unsettling Comic

I feel like I always see the craziest stuff happen in New York, and no one no one ever acknowledges it. 

Ben Affleck could walk into a Starbucks, stack cups on the ground, and then tell people to jump over them like it’s a Wipeout obstacle course, and everyone would respond, “oh yeah, that’s a completely normal action that makes sense” and go on about their day.

The first time I visited Brooklyn Bridge Park I saw a person dressed as the Joker riding a jet ski on the East River, and I legitimately saw nothing wrong with it at the time. Green hair that was onced greased into place whipping in all directions, purple coat tails flapping in the wind, a sickening cackle one-upping the horns of the other boats and barges on the river, white face paint reduced by saltwater to resemble nothing more than a poorly done sunscreen and lipstick job—nothing out of the ordinary. Looking back on it, that probably isn’t a normal thing that should happen on a Thursday at 3:00 in the afternoon. Should I have been a bit more concerned about this individual who fit the exact description of a fictitious serial killer, hurling himself towards the Manhattan Bridge at 70 miles an hour? Honestly, a hard maybe. 

This made me think about how I would react if I saw the same scenario play out in my hometown in California, and I busted up laughing for a solid three minutes at least. Just the thought of the Joker skimboarding past me on the beach, totally nonchalant was too much to handle. Building off of this idea, I kept thinking about the other wild things I’ve seen in my time in New York that I had written off as “silly city things” at the time. I tried to emulate similar scenes that would be absolutely horrifying if you were to come across them in any city other than New York, and I hope you feel equally as unsettled.