Good things come from trial and error

Trial and error is one of our most important processes. You’ll never truly appreciate what you do like, until you figure out what you don’t like.

One of my favorite movie trilogies, despite the simply-awful third part, would have to be “Back to the Future.” I loved the idea of time travel, and all the havoc a simple thing like a sports almanac could bring.

Even though the second one is my favorite, I feel like there’s a pretty big plot hole. Follow me for a few here:

• Doc Brown rolls up in the time-traveling DeLorean and says, “We’ve got to go back to the future.” Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer is there, and Doc says, “This concerns her too.” They all get in and the car flies off before disappearing into flames and reappearing in the future. This is how the first movie ends.

• As they arrive in the year 2015, Jennifer starts asking questions about what happened to them, if they have kids, etc. Doc uses some strange device to incapacitate Jennifer. Marty asks why he did that, and Doc says you can’t know too much about your future. Then, Marty asks, why bring her? Doc says, “I was standing there with a time machine. I couldn’t just leave her there with that information.” That’s how the second movie begins.

Back up for a second. I know it’s important to the plot that Jennifer wakes up and gets flung into her 2015 life ... but really? “I was standing there with a time machine. I couldn’t just leave her there with that information.”

Two things, Doc. First, Jennifer didn’t know it was a time machine until she was already in the car. She thought you were a weird guy with an old car. Second, if you were concerned about discretion, why did you leave a residential neighborhood in a flying car that exploded into a fireball? You could have said, “Marty, I need your help; I’ll explain in the car,” and then they could take off from that abandoned drive-in theater they used in Part III.

This is somewhat how I found out John Mulaney was my favorite comedian. I already had his first two albums, but he had me when he went off on another strange “Back to the Future” tangent. He wondered how that movie got made. It’s about a high school loser who hangs out with a disgraced scientist three times his age, and their relationship is never explained. Then, the teen travels back in time, not to stop the Kennedy assassination, but to ward off his mother’s sexual advances and stop a sexual assault against her. And that got sold as a family movie.

What makes Mulaney, and other comedians like Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman so good, is the precision storytelling and exact phrasing that just nails it. Listen to Mulaney’s story about the Salt and Pepper Diner and you’ll know.

I once made a Mulaney reference Tuesday without crediting Mulaney. And I felt like I’d stolen material on Thursday when somebody who was there said Mulaney was her favorite comedian.

“Oooh, so when I made the joke about bank robbers in the Old West getting away with it as long as they weren’t still there when the cops arrived, you knew ...”

Yep. And she had the decency not to embarrass me for it.

Trial and error. It’s how I find my favorite movies, and some of my favorite people.

Kevin Wilson is managing editor of The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at: [email protected]