2022-12-31 5:25:26 ¶ ●

The thing with Jon is that he is actually really funny! His delightfully dry and sarcastic sense of humor is pleasantly visible from the beginning, and it’s gradual decline as pressure builds up is pointed. He never loses his humor though, and in so many cases the crisis enhances it.

It makes me consider his childhood. Jon’s rejected, ignored and hushed pretty often but it scarcely stops his witty comments; is this the environment he grew up it? Its not uncommon for elderly people to have dry humor also, and the mask of academia goes hand in hand with sarcasm.

What’s really fascinating about Jon’s humor however, is how it changes during the apocalypse. When he no longer has to mantain a professional image or his integrity in any way his humor takes much more of a forefront. Of course, he’s still under a tremendous amount of pressure so it would be ridiculous for him to be funny all of the time, but when the social stakes are lowered he’s much more open.

We see it in many moments when he’s with Martin, and even with Basira, Melanie, and Georgie. His jokes are a lot more honest, and he allows them to be simply funny instead of lacing them with intellectualism. For the first time him being professional, polite, and socially acceptable will do absolutely nothing to help him and he’s able to let go.

Even in through the various moments of struggle in their journey Jon’s able to be more relaxed, which in turn seems to create better outcomes; I’d say that this is because it’s not his fault for once, but since he very clearly believes that it is, this reaction is likely as a result of the fact that it absolutely and categorically could not get any worse .

This, I think, is a reason Jon and Martin were able to get so far (and remain so engaging). Even in the darkest depths, the worst of the worst, their survival instincts and coping mechanisms compliment eachother greatly. Jon provides information, knowledge, and the light relief of a very good joke. Martin provides care, concern, and emotional critical thinking.

Their love for eachother was the glue that held together a very well suited team, and together their skills and even their flaws carried them forward.