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Comedy Theory (2022)

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Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#31

Post by yungporko »

everdrive wrote: post #7

I've yet to see a theory of comedy which actually addresses that there are multiple kinds of comedy: - Bullying, where the joke is not particularly funny, but instead relies on attacking someone's status in front of a crowd. The crowd laughs in recognition of the successful attack, not because the joke is clever. - Epiphany humor -- the joke relies on some new thought, connection, or idea, and the "joke" is the leap…

to be fair, i've seen plenty of examples of the "bullying" one be genuinely hilarious too.

Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#32

Post by mewpmewp2 »

qwery wrote: post #27
wrp wrote: post #21

Completely serious, I think Calvin & Hobbes had the best concise explanation. ( https://mymorningmeditations.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/... )

I'm not sure if I'm missing something (perhaps the joke, as it were) but the Calvin & Hobbes strip seems to be entirely about having a sense of humour, rather than a theory of comedy .

It's an interesting thought and a question "why did sense of humor develop through evolution?". I don't think this comic applies to the author's post though. Which is more about how to produce comedy, and seemingly quite one dimensionally?

Also I don't think the comics final answer is satisfactory, because you could definitely respond to absurdity, by calling out why something is absurd, you don't have to laugh at it.

So why do we have a sense of humor in the first place?

Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#33

Post by lyu07282 »

badjoak wrote: post #29
badjoak wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came from a long line of police marksmen. They serve good coffee next to the shooting range.

I came from a long line of police marksmen. We just won the precinct charity cancan dance competition.

the actually funny part is where you decided to create a throwaway account to make the joke

Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#35

Post by Retr0id »

bazoom42 wrote: post #11

Now explain why some jokes following this formula are hilarious but most are painfully unfunny. This would seem to be the hard part. > I’m awful at jogging. I run slower than Windows 95. Yeah you have definitely cracked the secret to comedy.

I think it's at least three things:

1. win95 has waning cultural relevance, and nobody has any fresh memories of dealing with its slowness

2. most of us have seen "windows bad" jokes a million times over by now - it's stale

3. "run" is a pretty weak/generic connection.

Edit: 4 - "I'm bad at running" has a sort of boomer-humor vibe to it, it's less relatable to an audience that's generally in-shape.

Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#36

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

One joke category is something like "getting away with it". A comedian can say anything, and if it's funny they can get away with it. A ton of modern comedians fail at this, but instead of grinding harder to find the funny angles and adapt to the new meta they act like losers and start to blame the audience. 100% skill issue.

I've noticed there's some people who just say mean things while trying to be funny, but I haven't cracked the details on what makes these jokes land or flop.

Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#37

Post by mewpmewp2 »

seanhunter wrote: post #20
klar120 wrote: post #6

This is exclusively the most primitive joke category base on double meanings. The jokes listed are boring and maybe suited for fillers in a standup routine. Due to the title I presume that this is another pro-"AI" article that devalues human ingenuity. Well, enjoy the non-funny jokes. I'll stick to pre-2022 material.

The jokes in the article are just there to demonstrate the pattern. There are lots of more sophisticated jokes which clearly follow the same pattern. For example Milton Jones' classic (which won "best joke" at the edinburgh comedy festival I believe) I come from a long line of police marksmen. Apart from my grandfather, who was a bank robber. But he died recently..... surrounded by his family. More Milton Jones "gran…

But this is not truly funny comedy. These seem quite clearly made up and depend on this very specific scenario. I think truly funny jokes are ones that are plausible real life scenarios, that spot some sort of unexpected social circumstance or a phenomena with a clever take or perspective that people do not frequently consider and that many in the audience can relate with. Usually you would expect it to be something that actually happened or could have happened to the comedy teller, and you want to imagine them actually be in that situation. Or it can also be a common real life scenario, but an original, yet clever insightful take on it combined with the character of the teller.

Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#38

Post by gosub100 »

itronitron wrote: post #19

I like the theory that jokes are funny to the extent they enable a discovery of 'shared knowledge' between the teller and audience. I'll provide a light bulb joke as an example... Q: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? A: That's not funny.

Shared beliefs, when they start complaining about things the audience relates to. Or completely obvious things we haven't noticed. A really funny monologue I saw once was a European comedian remarking how many different meanings can be carried by the word 'ass' and how often they are contradictory. Very clever observation.

Re: Comedy Theory (2022)

#39

Post by taylorius »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #32
qwery wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something (perhaps the joke, as it were) but the Calvin & Hobbes strip seems to be entirely about having a sense of humour, rather than a theory of comedy .

It's an interesting thought and a question "why did sense of humor develop through evolution?". I don't think this comic applies to the author's post though. Which is more about how to produce comedy, and seemingly quite one dimensionally? Also I don't think the comics final answer is satisfactory, because you could definitely respond to absurdity, by calling out why something is absurd, you don't have to laugh at it…

If absurdity made us despondent or desperately sad instead, that probably wouldn't do much for the ol' evolutionary fitness.
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