Mindy

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Emily Shur for TIME
Mindy Kaling plays Kelly Kapoor in The Office (I'm only on the 3rd season) and she's my favorite character. She only became my favorite - I have to admit - when I noticed her name in the credits as sometimes-producer sometimes-writer sometimes-story editor. In the beginning, I was like WHA- HOW SHE DO DAT?! when she acts IN the show, too?! And then I remembered the Tina Feys and the Amy Poehlers of the world.

And we all know how I feel about the Tina Feys and the Amy Poehlers of the world. (Envy, mostly. But admiration, too.)

I got her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), natch, which, although not as magnificent as I expected, inspired me to do something about comedy writing. Each chapter of her book felt like a blog entry, and at the end of each one, I was all "hey, I can do that."

I saw myself in my criticism of her book, if I'm honest. I am my own champion, but I am also always my biggest critic. I like to think it's a cute quirk in my personality (because if there is only one person in the world who thinks I'm cute, it's really only me), that I can't take compliments from people. When my friends say things like "Wow, that dress looks great on you" or "I love your hair," my response is almost never "thanks," but more like "NO DUH, OF COURSE IT LOOKS AWESOME, I DID THAT ON PURPOSE." Alternately, when I get criticized - for my writing, my projects, my physical appearance, my personality - I am also the first person to agree.

That's largely how I feel about Mindy. She's fantastic, she's funny and pretty and intelligent, I love her, but she also disappoints me, and she's so painfully mainstream and ordinary and just not quite good enough.

Of course I relate to her. Mindy looks a certain way but sounds another way, she is constantly aware of being "privileged" but doesn't necessarily base her actions around it, and most of all, my god the woman is mainstream. She loves Beyonce and comedy-nerds out on mainstream comedy. 

So yeah, this is the post I'll link to when I've finished the comedy writing I started last week. This, future me, is where it all started. Should I fail to bring the LOLs, or by some miracle at least get mini chuckles from my friends, I will come back to this post and think "Ah, Mindy. Look what you've done."

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