Could Aoife Cox do stand-up? No bother. Just give her a mic, and a potato or two, and the boss blogger of thedailyspud would have us all chortling. She is funny.
But hang on a minute? Wasn't there some nonsense in recent times amongst a bunch of sad old men who suggested that women didn't have what it takes to be funny? No one told Aoife Cox. She likes to drop little bomblets of drollness into her sentences, little shakes of humour, little amuses of amusement, things that have the effect of making you look back, as if a noise had just gone off over your left shoulder. You read it and laugh; you read again and laugh again.
The Daily Spud isn't just about the propitious esculent, though spud themes are common. Really, it's about amusement, and its impact was immediate: set up in 2008, Ms Cox had her first Irish Blog Award the next year, and bagged the gong again in 2011. Reading it refreshes your mind, as good, clear, funny writing should. Nobody has mentioned Norah Ephron yet, but the comparison is apt: both Ms Cox and the great Ms Ephron have a sort of wide-eyed, well-now-is-that-so?!, take on life's fresh little peculiarities. The reason why they get the joke is because they wrote the punchline.