#comedy nerds

[forgottenbones]

Why comedy doesn't make sense - James Acaster | Universal Comedy #shorts

[wearetrashpeople]

Rachel Pegram (CGP Minisode 13)

On episode 204 of CGP, Rachel Pegram will help us learn to be our most elegant selves with The Elegance Hour. Despite being sick, Emily Pineapple and Forrest the Keeper of the Canon are here to highlight Rachel’s past work.

Links from the Minisode: 1.) ThatShitRay: http://bit.ly/ThatShitRay 2.) Bachelorette Party: http://bit.ly/HammerkatzBachelorette 3.) Marry, Fuck, Kill: http://bit.ly/LO-FI_marryFuckKill 4.) Rom-Complicated: http://bit.ly/LO-FI_MFK 5.) Total Moisture Plus!: http://bit.ly/TotalMoisturePlus 6.) Mission to Zyxx: http://bit.ly/MissionToZyxxEp305 7.) Up Next - Making Table Friends: http://bit.ly/UpNextMakingTableFriends 8.) Watch These Other People Watch Other People Play With Puppies: http://bit.ly/WatchingPeoplePlayWithPuppies 9.) Turkeys Try Thanksgiving Food: http://bit.ly/TurkeysTryThanksgivingFood 10.) Vampires Try Human Food: http://bit.ly/VampiresTryHumanFood 11.) When You Find Out Your Boyfriend is Short: http://bit.ly/ShortBoyfriend 12.) Scary Lucy: http://bit.ly/ScaryLucy 13.) This Fucking City: http://bit.ly/ThisFuckingCity 14.) In The World of the Film: http://bit.ly/InTheWorldOfTheFilm 15.) Black People Contain Multitudes: http://bit.ly/BlackPeopleContainMultitudes 16.) Three Little Chickies #3: http://bit.ly/ThreeLittleChickies3 17.) Tampon Commercial - Presented by Men: http://bit.ly/TamponsByMen 18.) Fiddler on the Rooftop Bar: http://bit.ly/FiddlerOnTheRooftopBar 19.) LO-FI NYC’s Pilot: http://bit.ly/LO-FI-Pilot

[wearetrashpeople]

The Fanelli Birthday Episode (TCGS Fan Pod 12)

We Are Trash People recaps and reviews episodes of The Chris Gethard Show, the saddest, often most bizarre talk show in New York City. This week we review “The Fanelli Birthday Episode.” Links from the TCGS Expanded Universe: 1.) Dead Eyes: http://bit.ly/deadEyes 2.) “How Will I Explain Career Suicide to My Son?”: http://bit.ly/GethsEssayAboutCareerSuicide 3.) Mal Blum at Thee Parkside: http://bit.ly/MalBlumTheeParkside 4.) The Need to Fail: http://bit.ly/TheNeedToFail

[ryanmckee]

Click for tickets!

[nickdouglas]

Yes, a stand-up comedian is crying political oppression because people didn’t laugh at his joke, and because his infallible comic intuition tells him the joke, in a world undistorted by politically correct brainwashing, would be objectively hilarious.

Arthur Chu: How Seinfeld became a bad joke: The threat of a hyper-vigilant left-wing outrage machine has been greatly exaggerated - Salon

Also:

To paraphrase an Internet meme that paraphrases an evil clown, social exclusion, toxicity and shaming are fine as long as they’re business as usual, “part of the plan” — but flip the script and have people who aren’t used to experiencing social consequences suddenly face them and “Everyone loses their minds.”

[nickdouglas]

Yeah, it was very important to me to give the hamster high status, because he’s so downtrodden and put-upon. It’s just a basic comedy rule: If you’re going to strip somebody of his dignity, you want him to start off as high-status as possible.

Simon Rich gives some good (though not terribly new to practitioners) humor-writing nitty-gritty in this interview. Status is one of my favorite dimensions of comedy, and I have so much left to learn about it.

COMEDY WRITING ADVICE FOLLOWS:

For instance, in my web series Jaywalk Cop, we decided early on that the titular cop, who treats jaywalking very seriously, is more interesting in a world where everyone agrees with him. In this world, then, he’d be highly respected, like the investigator-hero of a straight crime drama. Even the show respects him — it’s implied by Brendan Swift’s camera work, by the actors’ deadpan performances, by everything that implies this show is supposed to be a drama.

We wrote the setting around Jaywalk Cop’s high status, and making everyone respect this ridiculous figure opened up plenty of jokes, like when his computer-hacker colleague says “Your skills really are more important than mine!” Which is the implied message of many hacking scenes in hero-driven action movies or shows for tech-anxious dum-dums.

And it let me make a slightly off-game joke: Jaywalk Cop is bad at technology. Not just from the viewer’s perspective, but from the show’s perspective. It’s the one joke where the show doesn’t take JC’s side—it catches JC with his guard down and reveals an “uncool” flaw (unlike, say, the flaw of being incapable of true love). And I’m fairly sure this is the only uncool flaw we can give him, or the whole system falls apart. The joke only works because it’s the one exception from the world of the show.

We even could have made JC bad at computers in a way that the show implies some respect for, by presenting it as something he’s simply too busy and practical for. But we definitely don’t. Even the hacker speaks with gentle Genius-Bar condescension when helping JC fix his flip phone. In an upcoming episode, JC struggles to use Seamless on an iPhone right after several civilian characters show no such difficulty. One of them even tries some amateur troubleshooting. I think that’s crucial.

So! Pay attention to your characters’ status, and which jokes it opens up. Reinforce status when possible, undercut it only in exchange for something else (like a joke, a dramatic turn, or character growth).

Anyone else have thoughts on status in fiction? What do you get out of it in non-comedy work? Reblog and tell me!

[nickdouglas]

‘Oh! Satire!’ we’re expected to say. ‘Sure, that’s why you were writing mean graffiti on that kid’s house. Got it. That’s why you pelted that old woman with hams. I’m behind the times, I guess. You’re basically the reincarnation of Jonathan Swift.’

Alexandra Petri: Trevor Noah, Patton Oswalt, bad jokes, satire and straw men - The Washington Post

[slacktory]

Now I will say that 27 is also a pretty funny number. I’ve heard 27 used as a go-to in lots of funny situations as well. But not as much as 37. No, not by a long shot. And why is that? Well because it’s just 3 9s put together.

"37 Is Objectively the Funniest Number" by Eddie Brawley for Splitsider