Jokes and Comedy - Lessons of the Funny Bone

Ryan Stiles ftw
And Drew Carey
And Jeff Davis

PS: adding Amy Schumer, Angelo Tsarouchas (Greek comedians rock!!) and Carl Barron (Aussie Comedians rock!)

 

Arright, let's start with what you said about the megachat incident and why that isn't trolling. I was chased from the mega due to lack of consent rules being obliged by one party and another acting in sheer hostility towards me. That's not trolling. Trolling is just done to get a rise out of someone. One thought he was being chummy, while the other was just acting in anger. That happening on a regular basis made me nearly quit this website.

That said, that's not what he's referring too. He's referring to what you called shit tier humor to peeps like me, Cam, and Mak that one day. Specifically, this thread popped up awfully close to after I said "Goddammit Ross," he told me to add more content because he missed the joke and was doing his job, I told him it's okay and a joke was missed, Hatok said references can't be jokes, and I said anything with a punchline and humorous intent is a joke.

So yeah, I think you're projecting too much credit onto this due to that assumption. Humor is humor, and even shit tier humor needs to exist so the masters look better.

Also PaW- Where do you get off saying that comedy is an art form and people need to work harder at it? Have you mastered this art and are just trying to tell people to catch up to you? Are you actually judging other people's humor? Because I've seen your humor and it's pretty shit tier too.

 

Well I clearly missed something, so "Thank you" rescinded while I regroup and figure out wtf's going on

 

Could you guys quote next time? I'm ill and completely forgetting I’ve posted stuff like this or that it even got replies. Thanks, darlings.
The below is good for anyone to read, btw. It addresses some of other peeps ideas and comments I believe.

Also, favourite comedians?
Lee Mack
Al Murray
Lenny Henry
Bill Bailey
More, but I can't think, honestly.

?
I didn't do it because of you or any of the aforementioned people. I don’t even know when you’re being humorous or not, until you tell me, and when you have to explain a joke after telling it, the laughter is lost and is not that funny. Not to say it’s not a joke to everyone else, but if I don’t get it, it’s not a joke to me. Same goes with you or anyone else. Internet walls of clear emotion and execution of jokes, and makes it harder to tell them, believe me. And, no offence to the others you’ve named, I don’t see them enough to know their humour or if they’re being humorous.

I did this thread because I see people who make insulting and offensive but unfunny ‘jokes’. I’ve been seeing youtube news clips of soldiers laughing at people they execute and make jokes about, and the comments defending their ‘humour’. It sparked a need for me to vent my thoughts. But that’s obviously the extreme I’ve looked at. Still, talking about unfunny jokes, I see those pranks like that whole carry milk in a supermarket, throw it in the air and act like you’ve tripped when no one’s looking. That’s immature humour twelve year olds do. Like getting kicked in the groin. There’s an audience for that though, people from Jackass and such make millions off of doing the most childish of things. But it’s not slapstick, which is planned and calculated, and cane make perfectly good comedy and humour. But burning your arse hairs is just there tickling the immature child inside, who also finds farts to be funny in and of themselves. It’s infantile and I will say I’m not a fan.

But talking of offensive or insulting jokes. Murder, paedophilia, bestiality and their worse ilk. Some are funny, but they really push the boundaries on what’s socially acceptable. Not all of them are forgivable, and some even invoke anything but humour. Hate, anger, sadness, some have even committed suicide from said jokes. But sometimes they are needed. Take the Aristocrat joke, centuries old, which comedians get away with using, even today. It’s considered the most offensive, derogatory and immoral joke ever, and is basically a rant of the worst things you can imagine. A comedian who performed in New York shortly after 9/11 was failing to get any laughs in his club. Understandable. But after so long of no laughs, he pushed it and performed the Aristocrat joke. The audience laughed and laughed at it. In my opinion a terrible joke for a comedian to tell. It was unoriginal and, as I said, just plain wrong. But people laughed. Faced with the horror around them, those people laughed at something equivalent to their horror or worse. Not saying people can’t enjoy ‘bad’ jokes or not, I’m saying they really ought to try harder to get a laugh than rely on the shocking and taboo.

I get off on this because I’m taking a module in The History, Theory and Performance of Stand Up Comedy for my Uni course. And if I’m a decent student, which I try to be, I’ve been picking up the odd bit of knowledge on the subject of comedy and humour. I was sharing my own observations, as per usual.

Comedy is an art form. The arts. Comedy itself has been around for over a millennia, across multiple cultures, with people like Cicero and Socrates considering it to be an art, and I agree with these dead Roman philosophers. If magicians and performing magic are considered art forms, than comedy bloody well is.
People need to work harder at everything. If you accept second best, you’re not going to improve. I admit, I don’t try 100% in everything but when it matters I do try. And I am not a master of comedy, but I don’t need to be to tell if someone is good. I can tell who is a good teacher and who is not, I don’t have to have mastered the art of teaching to know. I don’t think I’m good. No comedian or artist or musician or writer should ever think they’re good. That’s what makes them try to be good. Because feeling like they haven’t done good enough means they will try to do even better next time, and the next, and the next. If I accepted the first draft of my writing, the first joke I tell, without looking back on it and thinking ‘Where can I do better?’ I’d be failing my work and disrespecting those that have to read or hear it.

I’ve said it plenty of times, I respect people who try to change and improve themselves and frown upon those who don’t. Doesn’t mean I dislike them, hell, one of my best friends is still the same self-destructive arsehole I’ve known for over 7 years, and I still love him. But if anyone does an art form, they better be trying to improve, otherwise they’ll get nowhere with it. And yes, I do believe they should be judged if they do or show it publicly. I laugh at my mates humour even if it’s not necessarily funny to me and I suspect they do the same, because they’re my friends. But when they make really racist jokes or comments, I’m going to judge them and openly in fact. I tell them how **** their joke was because it wasn’t funny and was racist. This also means I should be judged. I have been judged and will be. Part of this stand-up comedy module means doing a stand-up performance. On Jan 10th, I’ll be performing a five minute set of my own stand up. I’ve already performed in front of my class. I’ve had massive laughs and no laughs at all. I’ve improved my act around that. Something I thought was hilarious wasn’t getting the desired effect at all. I dumped the joke and have to come up with a better one to replace it. Only by being judged have I found where I need to improve. I welcome critical feedback.

You probs don’t like my humour because you don’t like me. I think it’s obvious, even to you I hope that your bias makes you hate or love something more on principle then actual worth or credit. Or you just don’t like my humour. I don’t like all comedians. I cringe at most one line acts because their jokes are terrible. I don’t expect anyone to like me just because someone else does or might like me. I’ve not got that much of an ego. But I don’t find your humour funny, especially the over use of the word ‘*****’ or its variants. Not only do I find it offensive but it’s not making me laugh. It’s like using swear words excessively to try and make something funny. It’s a cheap laugh.

Also, this Goddamit business. Don’t get it. If you’re trying to make me laugh, try a broader joke that I’ll get.

 

OKAY I HAD TO BE SURE I WASN'T THE INSPIRATION. WE GOOD.

That's actually precisely why I keep saying Goddammit Ross. WAH HA HA.

And I'm pretty objective. I give credit where it's due yo.

That said, sorry for calling you out like that. I still stand by what I said but yeah, shouldn't have assumed yo.

 

OK SO I WAS ALMOST RIGHT

He wasn't. He was trying to make us laugh. It's not a joke you're meant to get. And honestly he was more into the actual execution than I was, I just liked the idea. I recently warned him to keep that shit to the 'Zone so hopefully you won't see it in Gaming or elsewhere again.

 

Did you laugh? If I'm the victim of a joke it'd better at least make people laugh. Otherwise, I wish for it to stop, lest it festers like a bad smell.
If it's humorous, carry on.

 

Don't worry, it will. Because we honor requests like that, RIGHT JAY?

 

I did not
You missed a very important 'automatically' that completely changes the meaning of what I said.
References can and are humour, but simply referencing something doesn't make something a joke. Like saying "Goddammit Ross" okay, so you acknwoledged the existence of the Game Grumps... what's the joke? Is his real name Ross? Is his behavior notably similar to his? You can't just intend something to be a joke and it magically becomes one

 

Except it was, just not aim to you. You weren't in on the joke. Automatically doesn't really help that sentence mean what you want it to mean either, because it doesn't one bit invalidate what I said there about humorous intent and a punchline.

 

So do you have a chat somewhere where you guys constantly refer to him as Ross or something

 

Around the time is discovered his name was Ross, I was discussing Steam Train. Just became a thing I wanted to do