Humor

Presented by Simpatico Theatre Project through Oct. 23 at the Walnut Street Theatre's Independence Studio, Ninth and Walnut Streets. Tickets: $8-$17.50. www.simpaticotheatre.org .

Ramon is a personable teen with a great smile. The 16-year-old is known for his pleasant, friendly manner and his sense of humor. He likes to please others and thrives on one-on-one attention. Ramon enjoys watching television, listening to music, visiting with friends and family, shopping at the mall, and attending birthday parties. Ramon has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Although he depends on a wheelchair, he is becoming more mobile with time and therapy. He is now able to walk with help in maintaining his balance.

When the folks at Talisman Energy dreamed up a children's coloring book about a dinosaur explaining the origins of natural gas, they had no idea that the "friendly fracosaurus" would become a casualty in the anti-fracking cultural wars. "Talisman Terry's Energy Adventure," a 24-page tale about a dinosaur wearing a hard hat and work boots, achieved a pinnacle of corporate communications when it got national television exposure from comedian Stephen Colbert, who lampooned it Monday on the Comedy Channel's "Colbert Report.

What do you get when you take an "elephant joke" made popular in the 1960s and fast-forward 50 years? A YouTube clip gone viral. Well, sort of. The joke may be lost to a generation of tweeters and texters who likely don't even know what an "elephant joke" is (until a Wikipedia search, naturally), but can probably recite the words to Rebecca Black's "Friday," a recent YouTube sensation. Today, after all, there seems to be a different dexterity when it comes to transmitting humor - an ability to discover all breeds of comedy online through platforms such as YouTube and then to share it rapidly, making viral everything from "Charlie Bit My Finger" (more than 330 million views)

And the rest is history. Or will be, when Colin Quinn takes the stage Wednesday night to begin a run of his one-man show Long Story Short , directed by Jerry Seinfeld (yes, him), at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. If the name rings a bell, it's perhaps because Quinn was a member of Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2000, specializing in a gruff, Brooklyn-Irish tough-guy take on topical humor, especially on "Colin Quinn Explains the New York Times" and as the anchor of the "Weekend Update" segment.

In Montgomery Theater's production of The Prisoner of Second Avenue , Tony Braithwaite is mad as hell and he's not gonna take it anymore. On the heels of another heated role - Marc, in Yasmina Reza's Art , at Act II Playhouse - Braithwaite turns up the mania in this dark-edged Neil Simon nugget from the early 1970s, later produced as a film starring Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft. Funny thing about the early 1970s: They look a whole lot like the early 2010s. Sure, Manhattan might be cleaner and safer these days, but America's economic troubles and job prospects appear to have come full circle.

THE BIG C. 10:30 tonight, Showtime. NEW YORK - For much of last season on Showtime's "The Big C," Oliver Platt played a husband with no clue his wife had been diagnosed with life-threatening cancer. It was hard playing those scenes "in the dark," he said. "You had to really focus and forget that you knew. " But how? "Well, you just do it. It's your job. You pretend. " Platt is pretty good at that. But as this dark though ultimately life-affirming comedy returns for a second season (tonight at 10:30)

A friendly and outgoing 16-year-old, Gerome has a great sense of humor and likes to make others laugh. He is intelligent and creative and he loves comics. "Whenever I read comics, especially Japanese comics, it motivates me to start my own cartoon," he says. Gerome loves cars and is thinking about a career as an engineer in the automotive industry. Gerome can be a little shy when you meet him, but will open up after you talk with him awhile. He is enrolled in regular ninth-grade classes and gets along well with his teachers and classmates.

Stravinsky overload has yet to infect the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, but after Danse Russe , it's not far off. As the main feature of the Thursday program "Rites, Rhythm . . . Riot!", the PIFA-commissioned, one-act opera inspired trepidation, given that scriptwriters for the 2009 film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky couldn't think of anything interesting for the composer to say and thus settled for an opaque stare. Presented by Center City Opera Theater, Danse Russe was a diverting pendant to all the festival's Stravinskyan activity, but even with the fine Paul Moravec score, I don't see it surviving on its own - for other reasons.

After languishing for a year and a week in the lousiest real estate market since Fred and Wilma bought their stone cottage, my house is finally selling. "Congratulations!" people say. So why am I not popping the champagne, as I imagined I would? Could it be because, after months of showings and price reductions and hopes raised and crushed, I am selling my house for 33 percent less than I paid for it in 2005? Please forgive the sarcasm. I can't really help it; it's just a pathetic aftereffect of what I have come to recognize as Home Seller's Fatigue - a condition in which prolonged exposure to spray cleaner and the continual threat of strangers appearing at the door make a person a little wacko.