to you john mulaney if not he’s a
stand-up comedian and I will never
forget the first time I heard his work
my friend and I were shooting pool my
right hand pressed down against the red
fuzzy table supporting the stick in my
left and presumably to distract me my
friend starts reciting this bit that I
later learned is from one of mulaney’s
albums and I tried to focus and I shot
and I missed terribly and I laughed
until my entire body hurt I was 13 years
old and I don’t think I’d ever heard
good comedy before and in that moment I
learned that laughter is the best
feeling in the world and now between
podcasts and stand-up and my wonderful
friends I listen to hours upon hours of
comedy a week and between creating my
own podcasts writing and subjecting
those around me to hit or miss witty
remarks I spend hours doing comedy every
week comedy is very important to me it
breaks the ice really well it makes me
smile more importantly it makes other
people smile comedy can be used to
articulate a point really well satire
like the onion is a wonderful example of
that jokes are a great defense mechanism
to my second-grade teacher had a whole
lesson about combating bullies with
confidence and wit and I’ve learned in
my own time that comedy can fight
against physical or emotional hurt
caused by pretty much anything comedy
has helped me when I’ve struggled with
depression and it helps me deal with my
anxiety every day if you pay attention
you’ll notice a lot of professional
so understanding comedy will allow you
to find more things to laugh with and at
than you ever thought possible and I
guess if you understand comedy you will
smile more understanding comedy and how
its structured will also make you more
able to construct it and therefore more
able to bring happiness into the lives
of the people you love now if you don’t
like understanding things because you
think it makes them less fun I request
that you respectfully please plug your
ears close your eyes and shout loudly
and incoherently for the remainder of
the talk thank you for not doing that
let’s move on so comedy at its most
basic boils down to the subversion of
expectations like when I just said
please respectfully make a scene and
some of you laughed because your
expectations were subverted they were
not destroyed or fulfilled you were
surprised but not confused surprises the
reason people laugh now all of comedy
happens within a context and there are
two types of comedy reactive and active
and in both types of comedy the laughter
comes from a response to an agreed upon
context that subverts the expectations
of the audience so in reactive comedy
the context is simply your surroundings
including the people the place and the
situation you’re in and the joke often
comes in the form of a witty remark
regarding something within the context
so most of the jokes you hear on a daily
basis are reactive let’s look at a
so I knocked over a desk in class today
because I am a clumsy boy and my teacher
sort of jokingly upset she looks at me
and she points and she yells 40 slaps
with a wet noodle and without missing a
beat I reply I eat pasta for lunch
that actually happened so let’s look at
the components of this joke first of all
it’s witty which means the speed of
response was immediate and that it’s
insightful it provides the insight that
not only can I handle these slaps I’ll
enjoy them the context
was me the context was me in class at
school it was happening in real-time the
content of the joke was connected to
multiple things within the context the
more things the content of a joke is
adjacent to within the context the
funnier the joke will be the word pasta
was adjacent to the word noodle the idea
of punishment was connected to my
ability to handle that punishment and
the joke plays on the fact that the
teacher is in charge by explaining that
I the student have the upper hand that’s
a solid witty response in active comedy
active jokes are just reactive jokes
made to a agreed-upon
fictional context often referred to as
the setup this is what stand-up comedy
is so let’s look at a stand-up bit I was
at the golf club last night having a
wonderful full course meal it was
delicious
it’s actually kind of funny now that I
think about it but they call it a golf
club because it’s like the name of the
thing that you do the game with it would
be like going to a baseball bat and
anyway I digress
so I was at the golf club having this
wonderful full course meal and then when
I finished the end I noticed like the
whole waitstaff is standing around and
they’re staring at me they’re giving me
the stink-eye they’re clearly very upset
and it took me a second to realize what
they were mad about I’d eaten the thing
that they play golf on all 18 holes the
whole course let’s look at the
components of this joke
so first of all I built the context it
didn’t really happen
and but I guess the context was me in
the golf club having dinner simple
enough and then the content subverted
your expectations multiple times all
within the context of the Senate first
the idea that a golf club is called is
called a golf club is kind of funny
second the fact that I interrupted the
joke to comment on such a trivial thing
is kind of unexpected in its own right
third I used the idea of a baseball bat
to highlight the IROC the irony not the
but that that screw up was a joke it was
it was further who’s for the bed so I
used the idea of a baseball bat to
highlight the irony of a golf club and
fourth I subverted your expectations one
last time the main course of the joke if
you will by changing the meaning of full
course meal and none of those ideas were
the next logical progression of thought
but none of them were completely
unrealistic within the context of the
setup they were all surprising so
theoretically they were all funny now
sorry hold on just a sec one quick thing
so this is the part where I wanted to
take off my shirt and just have black
tape covering my nipples and stand here
and that would have been completely
socially inappropriate it would have
been very unexpected it would have been
surprising and you would have laughed
and that in a nutshell is how physical
that that wasn’t a joke that’s actually
how it works because it’s inappropriate
and therefore unexpected and that’s all
I got go home write some jokes take off
your shirt and bring happiness into the lives of many thank you