Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

The controversy over comedian Daniel Tosh’s recent comments toward an audience member at The Laugh Factory in L.A. got a lot of people’s blood boiling on both sides of the debate. Tosh responded to the woman, who called out “rape jokes are never funny” during a set comprised of rape jokes, by further pursuing the subject:

“Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by, like, five guys right now? Like right now?” said Tosh.

Supporters came out on Tosh’s side, defending their freedom of speech, while arguments in protest also ran the gamut. It’s not that you can’t joke about horrible things, argued many, it’s that it’s completely unproductive to joke about horrible things in  a tasteless, threatening way. I’m no comedian but I like to think I have a sense of humor, and I quickly whipped up a list of 12 alternately hilarious subjects. Sure, they’re not as provocative or loaded as rape, but I believe true creativity lies in rendering the subtle or everyday humorous, rather than perpetuating negative ideologies of the status quo for easy laughs.

1. People falling off treadmills

2. Sun face tattoos

3. The fact that someone has dedicated so much time to this toilet paper alternatives blog.

4. Commercials

“IDK MY BFF JILL,” “It’s my money and I want it now,” “Geico’s ‘Tiny House,’” “no one pays me in gum”

5. Airline food (amIright?)

6. Garbage flying up and hitting people in the face

7. People spontaneously vomiting

8. Conspiracy theories (i.e. is Subway Jared an Atlantean Big Foot?)

9. Cakewrecks

10. These pictures of Nic Cage

11. The things people ask Yahoo Answers

12. The scene in The Fly where Jeff Goldblum comes out and his body parts are just all falling off (no? only me?)

Granted, while accumulating this list I struggled to look beyond internet fads/memes, which maybe means the bigger story is in the age of rampant virtual social networking, our society’s humor as a whole has drastically suffered. Or, rather than with the internet as a visual aid we’re becoming lazier jokers (everyone thinks they’re a comedian now), the internet is merely updating how we joke (faster, mass-produced, and less thought-out).

By Mark Peikert

As IKEA and CB2 stores proliferate, design has turned into something both affordable and achievable. Gone are the days of hiring an expensive interior decorator and crossing your fingers; now, you can outfit your entire home in style without breaking the bank.

Of course, a plentitude of choices has its own drawback: making decisions. That’s where Pret-a-Habiter comes in. The onestop shop for all your decorating needs, the company has been handling busy, overwhelmed style-seekers since 2005, first in New York City then gradually expanding across the country to Boston, L.A., Chicago, West Palm Beach, St. Louis and Portland, Ore.

Charging just a flat fee ($2,500–$3,000 per room), Pret takes clients from boring to chic in four easy steps. First, the client chooses a style—classic, modern, country, etc.— then the designer creates a design plan, chooses the furnishings and décor and then whips it all into one beautiful design.

“It’s the greatest time to be a consumer because the range of products, styles and prices—whether it’s IKEA or Target or West Elm or Design Within Reach, it’s all there,” said Pret founder and Executive Director Carl Bradford Stibolt. “You can basically have a fantastic home and it’s not going to cost you a lot of money.”

Focusing on simplicity in decorating rather than markups and hidden fees has allowed Pret-a-Habiter to weather the recession better than most design firms. “The first thing to get cut is luxury, and people still think of interior design as luxury,” Stibolt said. “But you’ve got money invested in your home, and maybe you don’t have the time or the know-how or the eye to put it together. That’s what we do. We know tricks, we know great sources, and you really can have a place that looks good.”

As homeowners and renters slowly become more design savvy, Pret-a-Habiter has reflected the growing trend toward affordable décor that’s not reliant on hourly billing. “Traditionally, you always hired someone based on their style,” Stibolt said. “But we’ll go in and do eclectic or modern. We’ve had bankers who wanted more classic, masculine things, people who want more color in their lives. We see everything; people who are downsizing, people who are here for a few years and want to have a nice place. It’s really been all over the place. Our demographic is people who want to have a designed home but aren’t ready to make that leap to working with a high-end designer, either for budgetary reasons or they don’t think it’s worth it.”

Pret-a-Habiter is also willing to go the extra mile with their services, from accessorizing the finished product to offering a slew of digital services that cut down on the time crunch. “I think where we’re going is very much a digitalized thing,” Stibolt said. “We do an online project management system, and people do go online at midnight, and do it at their own pace. We even have a blog where people can go on and ask a design question, AskPret.com.”

When a company is willing to do all of the legwork for you—from ordering furniture to making sure it’s delivered—there’s not a single reason to avoid making your house into the kind of place that looks as if an adult resides there.

For more information about Pret-a- Habiter, visit www.pretusa.com.

A Pret-a-Habiter designed room. PHOTO BY Barbara Saskia Klap for Pret-a-Habiter