This newsletter comes out every other Thursday and hopefully provides you with thought-provoking content about the mundane, wacky, and weird. I will be writing until the 75th edition. If you know someone who may enjoy the newsletter, you can share it here.
Last night a few friends and I saw one of my favorite comedians Sam Morril. It was the first comedy special I've been to since the pandemic started and it was great to laugh alongside friends and strangers.
Stand-up comedy is perhaps the oldest and most raw form of humorous expression. Stand-up is unique in the comedy sphere because it relies solely on one person's voice and physical expressions.
While comedy has been performed all over the world for thousands of years, stand-up comedy has deep roots in America. Mark Twain in the late 1800s was among the first humorists to go on tour. He joined other traveling entertainments all over the country. During these shows, stand-up comedy played a central role. He quipped an iconic line that "humor is tragedy + time".
Stand-up comedy continued throughout the 20th century but it wasn't until the late 1970s that stand-up comedy hit its stride. Stand-up comedy went from coffee shops and small clubs into major concert halls and sports arenas. The 1970s and 1980s saw mega superstars like Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Steve Martin, and Eddie Murphy.
Twenty-five years ago the peak for a comedian was doing a big live show and getting on Comedy Central. Today, the pinnacle is getting a Netflix special and selling out arenas.
Regardless of the time period, comedy is subjective. Laughing is a gut reaction. Comedians base their success on if what they say or do makes people laugh. It is a quick feedback loop. Comedians have different styles. A few of the most common styles are observational, social commentary, ranters, biographical, and self-deprecating humor.
I came across these two stand-up shows that have opposite rotten tomato scores. What is going on here?
Hannah Gadsby is a lesbian who talks about the social commentary of marginalized people. Dave Chapelle discusses transgenders and suicide. His remarks made some people in the transgender community upset. I personally found both shows hilarious. It's worth noting that Hannah and Dave's specials were in front of sold-out crowds in arena size settings. At the end of the day, people went to the show to laugh.
What is off-limits?
There is a lot of talk about "the line". What is okay to say and what isn't okay to say. Many comedians like to toe the line or push the line.
Often comedians use their style and offer a new perspective on a topic. For instance, some people say making a joke about a baby being killed is too far over the line. Yet, one of my favorite comedy bits is Sam Morril talking about a baby being killed at Disney Land. It is all about the context and the delivery. If a comedian takes something too far, the audience will turn on them and the jokes fall flat.
The future of comedy?
"The line" of what is okay to say will continue to move. Comedians today complain of being censored more than they used to be. However, comedians have always been complaining about that and have been getting in trouble for it just as long. In the 1960s Lenny Bruce was one of the most famous comedians in the world. He was arrested on 3 occasions for using a play-on-words for a female orgasm.
The average age of the 10 highest paid comics on Forbes List is nearly 50. It’s no surprise that jokes about divorce (Chris Rock), parenthood (Jim Gaffigan), and keeping up with the times (Dave Chappelle) are well-represented. How do new comedians break into stardom?
In short, social media, podcasts and Youtube. Stand-up comedians have followed the internet trend of musicians. For example, 30 years ago, musicians would tour around to publicize their albums and make money on the albums. Now musicians use social media and Youtube to gain loyal fans who will go to their live concerts, where they make their money.
Comedians still go to comedy clubs to perform, but they are using the internet to build a loyal fan base and test material.
What makes something funny?
There are a few foundations in comedy that make something funny such as, timing, wordplay, and an element of surprise. Another foundation is the structure of a joke, which was masterfully done in Ali Wong's special "Baby Cobra".
Pudding.cool website did an awesome analysis of her comedy special. This is a transcript of her hour-long special and each circle denotes how long the audience laughed.
Her special had hundreds of individual jokes, but had an overarching structure. It is not an accident that the largest laugh of the night came towards the end. She had built up a whole storyline to build into that joke.
Here are three themes she touches on in the special.
Diving deeper, we can see the mini storylines within the hour-long special.
Comedians who do anything longer than a few minutes tend to have a larger structure because you will lose an audience if there is no connective tissue between the jokes.
Stand-up comedy is arguably the toughest and most raw form of comedy. It is easy to fake a cheer, but people can see right through a fake laugh. In stand-up, your pedigree doesn't matter. At the end of the day, when the light shines on your face, it's showtime. You have to get the audience to laugh and that is the ultimate test in comedy.
Big History Project
A capturing mini-series course that tells the history of humanity. Bill Gates says it is his favorite history course.
TV Consumption
With the internet, I am shocked to see people still spend so much time in front of the TV. Television is still the most used electronic medium for US adults, beating out smartphones by 30 minutes a day.
Pic of the Week
We were at our friends Kate and Adam's cabin in the Tahoe foothills this past weekend. One of the highlights was having Chloe romping free off-leash on the trails with her boyfriend Cooper. This pic was snapped about 3 minutes before it started pouring rain.