Category: Comedy

The Philosophy of Comedy: Louis C.K.

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Despite his controversies, Louis CK is a talented comedian and we can separate the art from the artist, and take a closer look at why people find Louis CK funny. We will deconstruct Louis CK’s technique and understand what about his comedy resonates with some people so deeply.

Louis CK’s long career in comedy allowed him to develop the fundamental techniques of comedy. Like a boxer mastering the basic techniques, he has excellent delivery, timing, and rhythm. He has in his comedy toolbox all the tools of controlling his volume, using gestures, faces, and impressions. His casual method of conversational delivery is intentional and creates an intimacy with the audience to be vulgar. He is very conscious of how the audience would react to his performances and his words and expressions are fastidiously chosen.

Arguably, where he excels is his ability to write and tell a story, and he uses the tools he has accumulated throughout his career to highlight his storytelling. His storytelling ability is authentic to the point of absurdity. He is honest about everything in life: his dark thoughts, his experiences, his shame and embarrassment. The fact that he would share these self-deprecating authenticity make his persona on stage almost surreal. It is shocking yet familiar; it is intriguing because it is so weird. It is like a painting by surrealist Salvador Dali; it defies typical convention and finds beauty in the unexpected and uncanny.

The ethos, the distinguishing character of Louis CK is like that of a sad clown. In his TV series, Louie, we see the embodiment of Louis’ stage persona in everyday life. We see the tragedies of life, the social faux pas, and the way he sees the world as a hopeless balding fat man just trying to survive. In a world that is so difficult, we like and find the sad clown charming. His vulnerability and shame is the pound of flesh  he pays to the audience so that he can explore such difficult topics.

We’ve covered briefly the form of Louis’ comedy, let’s expand on his content. He discusses topics that frustrate, depress, and intrigue him: race, sex, politics, observation of human behavior, awkwardness, self-deprecation, or the mundane in his own life. Sometimes they are just banal topics he finds amusing that he dresses up in his vulgar style.

He presents a distinct philosophical worldview that subvert social norms and expectations, while at the same time acknowledging the cultural context and shared knowledge or experience. This is the key to what makes his material relatable. In order to subvert social norms, you have to have a mastery of it and know exactly where the edges are. This mastery is like a mirror of society, presenting what is appropriate, accepted, and odd. It tests the limits masterfully, or according to Jerry Seinfeld, Louis CK tap dances around laser beams.

Some jokes are just jokes, but other jokes cut to the core of the human experience. There is an educational quality to some jokes; for Louis, the education is a kind of existential lesson in absurdism and humanism. A common theme is a lack of the sacred, the resultant apathy, and the fight to find meaning in the world through relationships, parenting, or positive contributions to the world. This approach creates a subtle critique against pretentiousness,  inauthenticity, and intellectual laziness. It provides a raw, ironic honesty like a classic court Jester.

The question is whether to separate art from the artist. For many, the revelation of an artist’s misconduct can fundamentally alter how their work is perceived and enjoyed. What was once a source of entertainment or inspiration may become tainted. Some argue that continuing to consume and support the work of problematic artists can indirectly endorse or normalize their behavior. This viewpoint suggests that there is a moral imperative to withdraw support from artists who have engaged in harmful actions, even if it means forgoing their artistic contributions.

Those who advocate for separating art from the artist often argue that certain creative works possess inherent value that transcends the personal failings of their creators. They contend that art, once released into the world, takes on a life of its own and can be appreciated independently of its creator’s actions. This perspective suggests that denying oneself the experience of powerful or influential art due to the artist’s misdeeds may be unnecessarily limiting.

Ultimately, the decision to separate art from the artist remains a deeply personal one. While some may find it possible to appreciate art independently of its creator’s personal failings, others may feel that ethical considerations or the inextricable link between an artist and their work make such separation problematic or impossible.

The Philosophy of Comedy: types of comedians

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“She’s a dirty comic. He’s an observational comedian. They just tell one-liners.” What are the different types of comedians and the different types of jokes?

A type of comedian has to do with their ethos or voice or general character that they personify, which is different from the types of jokes. Although some types of comedians gravitate to some types of jokes, they need to be understood separately to be dissected. Think of the different genres of music (jazz, country, hip hop) and the styles of music that they make (pop, upbeat, acoustic).
 

Types of comedian:

Observational

Observational comedians provide commentary to the day-to-day and are relatable. A part of being relatable is having a pulse on the shared culture and experience of society with the audience. It is hard to do observational humor about Canada in Korea, but there are more general shared experiences like airline food or universal experiences like hunger. Observational comics are usually analytical and point out the oddities of some shared practice that has gone unnoticed. They provide a commentary on society and offer a mirror on society to laugh at.

Anecdotical

Anecdotes or storytelling comedians have long form structures with multiple jokes sprinkled in. Contrasts this with shorter bits or even shorter one-liner focused comedians, storytellers are often also relatable, personal, and observe the world, but they do it through sharing their life experience instead of some abstract topic. They provide specific situations and imagery an try to put the audience in their shoes while sprinkling in jokes to make them laugh. The stories don’t necessarily have to be relatable as their unique life experience can make it all the more engaging. More often than not, the stories are based on truth but highly embellished.

Situational

Situational comedy is based on the setting and the absurd life circumstances we find in characters or even in ourselves. These are quirky scenarios that Hollywood writers often come up with for a laugh track. But we also find it in real life. Think about the most serious situations and straight-edged people being put in hilarious situations or saying out-of-character things.

Character

Character comedy leans hard into quirkiness or being weird. The relationship with the audience is more intimate and built on a rapport of being a certain character or having a certain quirk. This character can be rooted in reality, take a stage persona, or be completely somebody else. The relationship and rapport are broken when the comedian breaks character or there is some inconsistency in the ethos of the character.

Alternative

Alternative comedy is based on a reaction to what might be considered mainstream comedy. Sometimes it’s referred to as nerdy or highbrow comedy. It embraces awkwardness, eccentricity, or intellectual jokes. It’s like hipster comedy.

 These are not sharply demarcated categories and the comic types and joke types often blend into each other. But these are useful categories to analyze comedians and jokes, and to find a voice and construct jokes for yourself.

The Philosophy of Comedy: how to tell a funny joke

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Intro

You think of a joke. You muster up the courage to say it. You delivered the punchline—you expect everybody to laugh—instead, there’s silence. It’s a terrifying, gut-wrenching feeling. Let’s see why some jokes fail and what makes something unfunny.

Poor delivery

Delivery is half the battle and a large part of what separates professional comedians from everyone else: you have to commit to your joke. It’s not easy to get over the nerves and tell jokes confidently with the self-conscious gaze of an audience. The illusion of performance is establishing a particular character or persona, and fully committing to that role. Breaking character disrupts the illusion, and this can happen from being hesitant or stumbling over one’s words. There is a flow and rhythm to every performance, and this is crucial to the delivery of a punchline.

The professional comedian’s delivery is one of the skills that are honed, and mainly through repetition and exposure. Often, this is achieved by brute force and spending lots of time on stage to make the contrived environment of being in front of a stage feel natural. The purpose is to overcome the barriers of nervousness and build confidence in telling a joke. Another effect of this is slowly developing a comedic voice, or a persona, or an ethos, or character from which the joke is delivered. This can be deadpan, over-the-top, blue-collar, or any exaggerated way of conveying a joke. This can be a mask to slip into on stage to deliver your jokes.

Remember, the delivery of a joke can be awkward and still work, as long as it’s consistent with the personality of the comedian. This is where authenticity comes in. The audience is well aware if you’re being disingenuous or nervous, like a key that is flat or playing the wrong note. It is the general ethos of the comedian or who they are as a character. It disrupts the entire flow and momentum of the relationship between the comedian and the audience. 

Poor joke structure

With good delivery, good will can get you some polite laughs even if the joke is not that great. But not for truly terrible jokes or hacky material. You’ll get some groans, or the failure may ruin your ethos or trust that you built with the audience.

A joke must build up a certain tension—sometimes called a set-up—and there must be a payoff—the punchline. There are a number of theories about the structure of what exactly makes a joke funny. But jokes aren’t made in isolation.

Jokes are tested in front of audiences. Like a focus group for market research, you want to test your joke in front of as many different audience demographics as possible to ensure that it works. A joke that is universally funny is rare. As such, creating and testing a joke is a long iterative process. Practice makes perfect. Comedians tell the same joke every night, and you might notice similarly that social butterflies recycle the same funny story with slight modifications. They might change a part that doesn’t work, cut out some of the wording, or add in a tag line to make it funnier.

Poor audience

The majority of the time, it’s not the audiences’ fault if a joke fails because it’s poorly structured or badly delivered. But sometimes you have genuinely bad or hostile audiences. 

For everyday scenarios, we have to look for opportunities to fit a joke in. Unlike professional comedians who create a world on a stage, in a comedy club, in front of lights, and a seated audience, our day-to-day world is often not conducive to comedic bits. Jokes can fail because it does not fit the environment.

It’s an important skill to read the room. Comedians can quickly assess which kinds of jokes work for the audience by listening to the receptiveness of the jokes. For example, you probably shouldn’t tell vulgar jokes at a work meeting. You can even tell certain jokes in certain ways to change the mood in the room and win over a crowd. Jokes are powerful.

Conclusion

People spend their entire lives mastering comedy. The feeling of bombing before a crowd, the awkward silence after cracking a joke, or eliciting no or the wrong reaction from someone can be one of the worst feelings in the world. But there’s something noble about it. You took a risk and you failed. You made the attempt. You will get better.

Types of Jokes

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Non-sequitur

It does not follow. Non-sequiturs are one of the most common type of joke. They rely on setting up an expectation and going in another direction. That shock and relief from the misdirection makes the funny.

Blue

Blue or risqué jokes are vulgar, dark, or morbid, and are often associated with non-sequiturs as they are often used for a shock value. Sometimes comedians are described as “blue” but it’s more useful to describe their jokes as blue. Not every single joke from a comedian is blue, although some say the failure to work clean or even one vulgar word or statement taints the entire set (and the comedian is therefore labelled as blue).

Hyperbolic

Hyperbolic jokes or exaggerations are about extremes to ridiculous proportions. It sparks an imagination of an absurd scenario that is funny, creates a caricature of reality, or mocks in a way that highlights some odd feature. The exaggeration is a game that the audience is in on.

Ironic 

Ironic jokes rely on mocking and the audience knowing it. There can be an underlying critique, like satire or parody, or it can be character-based or have some sort of message. It subverts expectation and breaks what is typical of reality.

Wordplay

Wordplay is another common joke form. It relies on colorful metaphors, analogies, or double-entendres. The classic pun, that relies on different meanings of a word, is a common example. Others rely on missing information, broken assumptions, or other linguistic play.

Self-deprecating

Self-deprecating jokes rely on the comic putting themselves down and embracing humiliation. But this builds a rapport with the audience. They are laughing with you because you humbled yourself and put yourself down. There is a connection with the audience built.

Esoteric

Esoteric jokes rely on some privileged knowledge or nuance. Part of the humor is that you are in the know and in the club and understand the joke. It can be pretentious or highbrow, but it can also be in virtue of a loyal fanbase. Fans of a particular comic can know certain things about that comic that others do not, like a good friend, and that itself can be funny.

Surreal

Surreal jokes or self-referential jokes transcend common sense or norms, and it is often absurd and outrageous. They can be difficult to execute because it is difficult to get the audience onboard. They can be meta or self-referential jokes (a “call back), or they can mock and break the traditional joke form and that itself can be funny.

Physical

Physical humor is the most natural form of humor. Children are primitively in tune with this form of humor and it relies on bodily gestures, volume, and facial expressions. It conveys and universal language and communicates a message to everybody. More sophisticated forms have nuanced expressions within contexts as a further form of communication or it can even create imagery through impressions or acting.

Craig Ferguson: the Professional Unprofessional

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Craig Ferguson is unpretentious. Why use an adjective in the negative to describe him? Why not say “authentic,” “humble,” or “genuine?” He’s certainly all those things, but I want to emphasize the point that he defies the norms of late-night television, and deliberately trims all the neat lacing of an outward television persona. Another post might look closely at the form of his show in general: the absurd elements and what makes the show so special. Here, instead, I want to focus on the person, Craig Ferguson, and abstract away to the idea of being unpretentious.

We can draw a connection to being unpretentious in our own lives: our professional sides, and the double life we lead in the professional world. We change the way to speak, act, and show ourselves in order to present our professional selves in the best light. Television hosts must do the same, but, for Craig Ferguson, his approach, particularly with his guests, is to be unpretentious and instead just focus on building a relationship with his guest. Unlike other talk shows, his guest is not merely a client promoting their project in exchange for more viewers, nor is his guest subject to the host’s particular TV persona.

Craig Ferguson is essentially relation: he shifts the focus to the other and is empathetic to the point of forgetting to worry about how he looks and how he comes off to the gaze of the audience. The relationship he builds with the guest is the performance. The key to making the conversation with his guests interesting is that he’s genuinely interested in his guest. He asks engaging questions that are not superficial. It can get intimate, inappropriate, or indecent – all the things you’re not supposed to do in the professional world – but it is interesting.

Professional relationships are superficial and risk adverse, and thereby mostly uninteresting. As a professional, you cannot get intimate because it risks offending the other party or creating an uncomfortable environment: all elements that are not conducive to business, transactions, or a work relationship. Even the jokes in a professional context are sterile, forced, and disingenuous. The professional world is so concerned with optics, maintaining power, and looking competent that it creates an air of pretention and self-aggrandizement. Put differently, it’s about selling an image instead of meaningful interactions. There are boundaries to stay within because it is the superficial where we can all comfortably interact – this universality of professionalism, from the lens of comedy, is trite and hackneyed.

Notice how Craig Ferguson shifts all the attention and focus to the guest instead of trying to focus on maintaining his professional façade. He is free from boundaries, and he is free to explore all the uncomfortable areas for humor and an interesting conversation. He might end up looking foolish, incompetent, or weak, but this is the risk he takes in being unpretentious.

John Mulaney and Comedic Storytelling

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Stories are powerful for connection, teaching, and stepping into someone’s point of view. Throughout histories and cultures, storytelling has had different functions, forms, and medium. We’ll be exploring the intersection between comedy and storytelling through the comedian John Mulaney.

Voice

Comedy voice is a bit of an elusive term, but we can begin to describe it with reference to the Greek word “ethos,” meaning something like character or a particular set of values identifiable to a person. For John Mulaney, his ethos is a refined character with an almost century old, vaudevillian energy that doesn’t belong in this era. His suit and his transatlantic tone in his voice gives a sense of displacement for the audience: he doesn’t belong in this world, and he projects that persona into his comedy. This is the seed of instant connection with the audience: everybody feels confused, flustered, and displaced in the world at times. Yet John Mulaney does not carry himself as the disheveled, unattractive outcast. His speech has the rhythm of a professional and his manner of speaking is polished, almost like written theatre. He personifies two ends: ourselves in the world sees us – put together with a façade of manners and conduct – and the way we are in private – clumsy, awkward, and trying our best to navigate the world. This is John Mulaney’s point of entry and the way of connecting with the audience.

Technique

There are some notable techniques particular to John Mulaney. The structure of his story begins with a benign topic or some average occurrence in his life, then it starts to build up. Note that the source of comedy is in the absurd. The story turns into something weird about life or how his personal social faux pas. He points out how absurd things are in a couple of ways. For one, he provides commentary in the form of a relatable observation which breaks the fourth wall. Every step or pause, he wants to sprinkle in how absurd and weird the particular occurrence is. He points out to the audience to the tension within all of us between our professional and personal selves: he uses overblown, exaggerated impressions of people, he uses descriptive, flowery adjectives, and he uses his tone and gestures to paint a picture of an absurd scene. Notice also that he’s fundamentally self-deprecating to further relate to the audience. Any witty mocking of others is always couched in lowering himself first.

Effectiveness

The difference between the politician telling a story and the comedian telling the story is that the politician has to instill a sense of confidence and capability in the audience; the comedian, however, can show foolishness and weakness, and this arguably makes the comedian more genuine and authentic. The core vulnerability and humility in the comedian gets the audience on their side: once the audience is on their side, they can add “tags” or throwaway jokes or push for something more self-laudatory only because the audience acknowledges the comedian is, by their own title, a clown, a jester, a licensed fool. However, much like the politician, the comedian has insights, observations, and can serve as an advisor, as is the Shakespearean fool. John Mulaney is the modern court jester and a master storyteller.

Conan O’Brien and Universal Humor

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There is a lot that is unique about Conan, but some notable aspects of his career are his longevity and global reach. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. He’s Harvard educated, knows his history, wrote on The Simpsons, stumbled into Late Night, and has been in the game for a long time and he keeps going, growing, and expanding. From Korea to podcasts, he’s a case study of someone who made a career of silliness.

Play and silliness is universal. You might call it corny, hacky, or lame. But he taps into the universal silliness that’s cross-cultural and perhaps cross-historical. His vaudeville-like physical humor is childlike and pure. However, he is witty and smart. He’s a professional who works hard and plays harder. He is sarcastic and he has a jaded, dark side to him. He knows all the tools of a good stand-up comedian in virtue of his vast experience. Yet what is remarkable about Conan is his willingness to be silly.

Silliness can be thought of as intentionally looking like a fool. We all do it from a young age and it can be seen among other higher-order primates. It’s playing a role, acting stupid, or being the outlandish clown. It displays an invitation to play and jest with others, and it’s the most basic form of interpersonal entertainment. Silliness can function as a signal to others that you aren’t looking to be combative, you want to neutralize the situation, and you want to engage in play. It’s a form of conflict resolution and social bonding, but it can also be inappropriate in certain social circumstances. For instance, it might be a faux pas to be overly silly at a funeral because the sacred and the solemn should not be undercut by the silly.

Some people might not find silliness funny per se. However, arguably all humor is an evolution of this primitive notion of silliness and play. We might look for more sophisticated forms of humor in the form of wit, wordplay, or deep observations; however, a carefully constructed joke is still a form of silliness. The silliness might deal with topics of the absurd and the ironic, but it still points out the silliness.

What is notable about Conan’s silliness is that it is mainly self-directed, thus, self-deprecating. Contrast this with the “cool” stand-up comedian that takes themselves too seriously to be self-deprecating: there’s a pretense and superiority that is at the opposite end of silliness — such people seem to be communicating socially exclusionary behavior and keeps others at arm’s length. Silliness brings people in. It brings everybody in to share in the joke of his foolish clown act.

Comedy Case Study: Bill Burr

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Bill Burr is not for everybody, but here I’m hoping to shed light on why you should appreciate him a little bit more. He has gained some mainstream success in the last decade – for his roles in Breaking Bad, F is for Family, and his Monday Morning Podcast. He is sometimes described as a “comedian’s comedian,” meaning he’s acquired the respect by his peers for his comedic technique and craft. Let’s take a closer look at the kinds of techniques he employs and executes as a comedian.

First: a brief background. Bill Burr attributes his comedic technique to his tenure at the Comedy Cellar, a comedy club in Manhattan where many of the top New York comedians gathered. Here, he claimed, his fellow comedians (like Kevin Hart, Patrice O’Neal, Jim Norton, Rich Vos) harshly critiqued each other for hackneyed and cliché material – making each other sharper and better comedians – like a sort of peer review process. Moreover, Bill Burr performed all over America for a variety of crowds, and this made him into the comedian he is today.

Next: comedic style or comedic voice. The first impression you’d probably get is an angry Bostonian – the typical, dummy bro-dude with a fed-up, old man energy. He rants about a variety of subjects, including sports, relationships, and politics. Notably, he is honest and genuine, and he explores topics he is interested in or passionate about. This ethos of anger and authenticity is something we can all relate to.

Now, most importantly: comedic technique. Let us put aside the general principles of comedy (for now) and focus on what Bill Burr does really well. He can manipulate the audience’s emotions and reactions – first you’re against him and then you’re with him all the way.

More specifically, Bill Burr starts with a ridiculous or controversial premise that gets everybody’s attention – he creates and builds up tension. The audience is uncomfortable and wondering what will happen next. Next, he explains in an exaggerated or self-deprecating way (admitting his ignorance), and the audience joins in on the absurdity and they’re back on his side. He keeps pushing (adding tags), and the audience relates to his perspective and connects with his humor. First the crowd is against him, and then he triumphantly gets them on his side; rinse and repeat. He’s playing tug-of-way with the audience, the up and down, like a roller-coaster, making for a fun and entertaining ride.

What makes Bill Burr so special is that under all the sarcasm and mocking is a unique message. He has a specific point of view which he draws from instead of some vacuous cynicism, and you get to see the world from his perspective. Authors, musicians, movie writers, and Youtubers all try to communicate their point of view and how they see the world. Bill Burr effectively conveys his anger, confusion, and bitterness towards the subjects he covers. Even if you don’t agree with him, even if you know his facts are off, you see where he’s coming from and you empathize and connect with him. In this, he challenges you, changes you slightly, and gives you a new way to looking at the same old subject.