Here's a new idea: Let's read about dead fathers!

So we're doing the dying father thing again eh? Okay. I actually felt like I could enjoy this text's message about the death of a father. I think that Zadie Smith really wanted to address this issue in a new light, so I'm not complaining. Harvey's death as well as pretty much everything else in this essay, is viewed as comedy. I agree with Smith that everything can be seen in a comedic way and I was interested in this essay's attempt to do so. I don't think, however, that death is the most important message presented in the article.
Smith wanted to share perceptions about comedy with the reader. She wanted to show us first of all that comedy was the only thing she had in common with her father. She seems to love her father's sense of humor which focused on finding the humor in sadness and despair. Harvey's children have inherited this sense of humor. Smith goes on to give examples of comedians that she loves for this type of humor. She talks about loving comedy for what's beneath the surface. When Harvey died Smith wanted to find humor in his death because comedy was what she shared with her father. She mentions many times that she kept his ashes on her desk in a plastic tupperware for a year after he died.
The most interesting aspect of this article for me was Zadie Smith's thoughts on comedians versus novelists. She talks about the way a comedian has perfected his act and says "I couldn’t help being struck by the sense that what it might take a novelist a lifetime to achieve, a bright comedian can resolve in three seasons. (How to present a working-class experience to the middle classes without diluting it. How to stay angry without letting anger distort your work. How to be funny about the most serious things.)" I thought this was a really interesting thought because it holds a lot of truth. Writers aren't nearly as versatile as stand-up comedians because they don't need to be. The career of a comedian requires quick thinking on how to perfect an act. A comedian is either funny or not and if flaws in an act aren't addressed quickly a comedian might fail. On the other hand, a novelist cannot quickly perfect a novel if the public doesn't respond well to it.
Zadie Smith's article seems to say (as cliche as it may sound) not to take life too seriously. She shows the reader ways to apply comedy to life and also addresses comedy in its most obvious form. She tells the reader of the importance of humor in her life. And let's be honest, where would we be without it in ours?