The Strongest Medicine
Laughter is a natural part of life and is often called the strongest medicine. It starts with registering a joke and then before you know it your body is taken over by laughter. People find that the easiest people to make laugh are babies, as you can make them laugh or cry on a whim. But something that is not universal is our senses of humor, which can vary drastically from person to person. Finding out why some people think the Big Bang Theory is hilarious and why others loathe the series is something that has interested me for a while. Not specifically about the Big Bang Theory but rather more about why we find things funny and others don't. This ultimately comes down when something could be hurtful or unsettling, but is at the same time harmless. Think of the platypus, an animal which looks like a cross between a duck and a bear, that could also kill you with lethal poison hidden in its hind leg. The platypus is a perfect example of an animal that many think is hilarious due to its look, but in actuality might be able to kill you. The hidden lethality of the platypus is present in almost every joke, that is if it's a good one.
A well crafted joke can force a smile on even the saddest person, but to make it funny it needs to have an element of truth to it. Insult comics are popular for their ability to make people laugh at themselves and others, as they often hit at a core insecurity directed at the person they have insulted. The comedian is not telling us their honest opinion, but once the person who was insulted laughs, it gives us permission to. If the comedian uses the person’s insecurity again in a similar manner we will laugh again, but the third time is often when audiences stop laughing. Much of comedy lies in its ability to surprise you with the punchline to a joke, which is why when you hear the same punchline twice, you are expecting it the third. Many comedians use the punchline the second time to set up our expectations in much the same way as the others, but when the punchline is coming, they switch it up or tell it in a slightly different way, which challenges what we thought they were going to say. An easy and often unfunny way of doing this is with the knock knock joke where you continue saying banana until you end with the punchline “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana.” Comedians will do the same punchline multiple times in a set, but through a series of distractions and finding new ways to use it, their joke evolves. This can be found in popular culture too, as we find the same joke all the time very boring and played out. A famous example of a classic reversal is in the Naked Gun where the main character crashes his car every time we see him driving it. In the third time we see him driving the car we expect the same punchline, but are instead met by the car driving itself away after having crashed and the main character asking if anyone got the plates to what was clearly his car.
A common assumption when it comes to comedy is that it has to be universal, which is just not true. British humor tends to be dry and witty, while American humor is loud and in your face the whole bit. Humor varies based on the region but it also varies person to person, as many people do not have the same sense of humor. Similarly a large group of people can be told a joke and all laugh, and then when told a separate joke will have a different reaction. The important thing here is that humor is not universal and there is no one joke that you can tell to everyone and make them laugh. Humor is often something that varies from culture to culture, and while sight gags are good for making an audience laugh across language and cultural barriers they can not be solely relied on to make your joke funny.
Oftentimes the best way to solicit a laugh is to try and catch your audience off guard, something comedian Dave Chappelle does often. Chappelle is often in the headlines for making jokes about things that many people do not joke about, but what makes him so funny is that he surprises us with these topics. Chappelle will joke about the transgender and gay community in ways that people don’t find funny, but they way that he tells his jokes is. Much of the controversy around Chappelle is that he uses his take on life to spin jokes, and often catches us in a story where there will be no jokes throughout it. His serious and calm attitude during these periods is what helps sell the joke, as he can go from talking about a rough patch in his marriage to making a joke about masturbation in the same breath. This unexpected jump from serious to comedic catches the audience off balance and allows them to laugh unexpectedly. This is what many people aim to do, as their flavor of humor may not be for everyone, but if you can surprise someone you can make them laugh.
According to Peter Mcgraw, author of the Humor Code there are two reasons why your joke isn’t funny, it's either too benign or too volatile. The right amount of both makes a joke funny, because if we don’t have enough of either or too much of one the joke will either fall flat or be taken the wrong way. The method is scientific, you need to test whether a joke is too benign or too offensive with many people in order to gauge what is working and what isn’t. To do this many comedians take their various bits to many places and test them on a wide variety of different people.
A documentary called Waiting For The Punchline, follows comedian Nick Scarpino from his day job as a Youtube gaming podcast host to his “night job” of trying to become a comedian without using his online fanbase as a booster. Scarpino tests his jokes in several comedy clubs a night in order to pursue his dream of being a stand up comedian. The doc follows him as he bombs in several clubs and brings down the house in others. Ultimately Scarpino begins to fulfill his dream with some added help as his gaming channel co-hosts and fellow internet funnymen and women agree to help host a comedy show in San Francisco and perform in it along with Scarpino. Throughout the doc Scarpino shows his personal process for writing jokes and shows that there are no shortcuts in comedy, and that the approach is very science based on what people tend to find funny. A common goal for many comedians in San Francisco is to be able to perform at the Comedy Club, a place where many stand-up greats have gotten their start. The audience comes to laugh, so if and when your name is called it is your job to entertain them. Here the audience won’t root against you and they want you to succeed, so if you can’t make them laugh odds are your joke is benign or too offensive. At the end of the documentary Scarpino is invited up on stage with five minutes to perform, and while we do not see it, it is assumed that Scarpino succeeds.
Comedy is hard, anyone who says it isn’t probably hasn’t put much time into it. The amount of work that goes into writing one joke for a stand up set can take anywhere from a day to several years. There is no one way to approach comedy as everyone has a different prefered style and everyone tells jokes in a different way. The key to comedy is to know what is generally found funny, which is something that offends but in a way that doesn’t hurt the person. Jokes like Bush did 9/11 work because of the absurdity of the joke, and that it is something many people don’t joke about. The benign is that the joke couldn’t have possibly happened and the offensive is about 9/11.
Laughter being the strongest medicine is attributed to making people feel better about their current situation. When someone is down the first thing that people try to do is make them laugh. The laugh helps bring about that warm and fuzzy feeling that we associate with happiness, and as a result we try to tell jokes to make the person feel better because it helps us feel better. Though laughter may not always help, poking fun at our situation can always help lighten the mood, and if it’s done well, it should be close to the truth. This close to the truth approach helps us keep it offensive enough to be funny, but also benign enough to not hurt anyone, and that's what comedy strives for.
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