[Originally posted on June 28, 2011]
If you're looking for note 1, it's here (On Comedy - Upset (Post 1/3)). It's on Upset. If you're looking for note 2, it's here (On Comedy - Reversal (Post 2/3)) It's on Reversal. If you're looking for the note on Surprise, you have either come to the right place or completely failed. But then, you always knew it would come to this.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
On Comedy - Reversal (Post 2/3)
[Originally posted on June 28, 2011]
This is part of an ongoing series of notes on Comedy, which since the last one was posted about 10 months ago, should be finished some time in 2015. I'm going to try to step up how often I post, but to be honest I don't actually think anyone reads these things, so whatever. The first one, On Comedy - Upset (Post 1/3) can be found here: http://saidinjest.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-comedy-upset-post-13.html)
This is part of an ongoing series of notes on Comedy, which since the last one was posted about 10 months ago, should be finished some time in 2015. I'm going to try to step up how often I post, but to be honest I don't actually think anyone reads these things, so whatever. The first one, On Comedy - Upset (Post 1/3) can be found here: http://saidinjest.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-comedy-upset-post-13.html)
On Comedy - Upset (Post 1/3)
[Originally posted on August 11, 2010]
With this Thursday's Open Mic Night at Yuk Yuk's rapidly approaching, I've been thinking more and more about what makes something funny. What I've noticed with a lot of the comedians who've been featured there is that they're getting better and better at recognizing when a joke is falling flat and they should move on. You see it with professional comics all the time: Mitch Hedburg said, "You're going to love that joke later, because I'm going to take all those words out and put in new ones." He got that it was falling flat and took a funny way out. Brian Posehn makes references to his own nerdiness, covering awkwardness with more awkwardness, in a self-referential pile of awkward that seems to make him even more endearing to audiences. Dylan Moran seems to have hundreds of amazing throwaway lines ready, so he can cut to them when he needs to. Those are all decent ways of handling every comic's worst nightmare: a dead joke.
With this Thursday's Open Mic Night at Yuk Yuk's rapidly approaching, I've been thinking more and more about what makes something funny. What I've noticed with a lot of the comedians who've been featured there is that they're getting better and better at recognizing when a joke is falling flat and they should move on. You see it with professional comics all the time: Mitch Hedburg said, "You're going to love that joke later, because I'm going to take all those words out and put in new ones." He got that it was falling flat and took a funny way out. Brian Posehn makes references to his own nerdiness, covering awkwardness with more awkwardness, in a self-referential pile of awkward that seems to make him even more endearing to audiences. Dylan Moran seems to have hundreds of amazing throwaway lines ready, so he can cut to them when he needs to. Those are all decent ways of handling every comic's worst nightmare: a dead joke.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Absolutely Ridiculous
I've been thinking a lot recently about absolutes. "I'm done with this." "I love this." "You're intolerable." "I want to put my penis in this." ...basically any phrase that includes some sort of sweeping generalization as it relates to me.
What brought this up is that I was thinking about New Year's resolutions. They are, as a whole, utterly insane and stupid. Yes, I know that that's one of those "absolute" statements. But the numbers back me up on this. See, around 92% of people's New Year's resolutions fail (80% in the first 20 days of the year), though it's not through lack of trying. No one set out to lose weight, or quit smoking, or stop beating their children, with the thought, "it's okay if I fail, because I'm still okay." When they start out on their goals, it's with the best of intentions. They will work out for a while. They will not smoke for a while. They will stop being such a bottom-feeding, mouth-breathing cunt of a human being. For a while.
What brought this up is that I was thinking about New Year's resolutions. They are, as a whole, utterly insane and stupid. Yes, I know that that's one of those "absolute" statements. But the numbers back me up on this. See, around 92% of people's New Year's resolutions fail (80% in the first 20 days of the year), though it's not through lack of trying. No one set out to lose weight, or quit smoking, or stop beating their children, with the thought, "it's okay if I fail, because I'm still okay." When they start out on their goals, it's with the best of intentions. They will work out for a while. They will not smoke for a while. They will stop being such a bottom-feeding, mouth-breathing cunt of a human being. For a while.
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