Althouse: "Good stand-up comedy cannot be safe; it must shock or surprise an audience."

April 2, 2015

"Good stand-up comedy cannot be safe; it must shock or surprise an audience."

"Some comics can do it magnificently with insights about socks, but the best do it with bracing commentary about the stuff that really matters to us. Sex, race, politics and religion have been the source of some of the best comedy I’ve seen, but the process of figuring out how to talk about difficult issues is going to involve errors that are potentially painful for people in the audience."

Writes the comedian Guy Branum, trying to help Trevor Noah off the hook for all the non-PC stuff in his Twitter archive.

By the way, "insights about socks" is a reference to Jerry Seinfeld. Many, many comedians over the years have observed that socks get lost in the laundry. But this is how you do it "magnificently":

ADDED: By the way, if Trevor Noah can be brushed off and set aright, can we bring back Michael Richards?

28 comments:

Sebastian said...: "it must shock or surprise an audience"

While avoiding "errors," of course.

"These jokes aren’t just bad and hurtful; they reinforce a mostly white, straight, male power dynamic within the comedy world"

Just so we know what "errors" to avoid.; 4/2/15, 9:17 AM
rcocean said...: You can only shock the right people. If you "shock" the wrong people you get blacklisted or charged with a hate crime.; 4/2/15, 9:18 AM
rcocean said...: Of course, what he means by "shocking" is doing the standard attack on religion or republicans, or white middle class people that's done all the time.

Left-wing artists always pretend they're brave when in fact they're the cultural elite and the pets of the rich and powerful. It reminds me of Hitchens being "brave" while writing for Vanity Fair.; 4/2/15, 9:21 AM
rhhardin said...: Escaped sock, 2006.; 4/2/15, 9:24 AM
holdfast said...: Yeah right. The Left has been setting the rules of "acceptable" humor for decades. Now try are being hoisted by their own retard (sic).

But of course, there's nothing funny about the jug-eared, golf fanatic who can't speak without a TelePrompTer.; 4/2/15, 9:24 AM
Birches said...: What a liar. Everyone knows that Seinfeld reigns supreme. Brian Regan has taken over for him.

We have an FM comedy station here. You know which ones are the funniest bits? The ones that don't go near politics or race or religion. I find myself laughing at George Lopez's routines a lot, but that's not a race thing--it's a cultural thing. We're laughing at ourselves. When he retells some family member calling him, "Cabron" I laugh because I've had the same family situation. George Lopez wouldn't be funny if he was making fun of the Jewish lady next door, which is what Trevor Noah seems to do.

Everytime someone goes for shock on the Comedy station, I change the channel. It's not funny, and you can tell by the audience reaction, they're not very amused either.; 4/2/15, 9:28 AM
damikesc said...: Left-wing artists always pretend they're brave when in fact they're the cultural elite and the pets of the rich and powerful. It reminds me of Hitchens being "brave" while writing for Vanity Fair.

“So, let me get this straight. Your professors are liberal. The administration here is liberal. Your high school teachers were liberal. The mainstream media is liberal. The music industry is liberal. Hollywood is liberal. The art community is liberal. The fashion and publishing industries are liberal. And yet you people think you’re sticking it to the Man by agreeing with them?” --- Jonah Goldberg; 4/2/15, 9:29 AM
tim maguire said...: rcocean said...Left-wing artists always pretend they're brave when in fact they're the cultural elite and the pets of the rich and powerful.

That's the thing that bugs me most about most political art--not that it's boring, trite, predictable, childish, and utterly lacking in insight. No, the worst part is that it pretends to courage when it is actually carefully safe in the environment in which it is intended to be shown.; 4/2/15, 9:38 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: High Desert Bob is at the biker bar giving a blow job to Iron Mike when he asks Iron Mike: "Does me giving you a blow-job make us gay?"

Iron Mike replies: "No way, dude, we're just a couple of guys at a bar. letting off steam."

High Desert Bob then asks Iron Mike: "Does me licking your hairless balls make us gay?"

Iron Mike replies: "No way, dude: we're just close friends, that's all."

High Desert Bob then asks Iron Mike: "Does me putting two fingers up your ass make us gay?"

Iron Mike replies: "No way, dude. It makes YOU gay: me, I'm just getting a blow-job."

I am Laslo.; 4/2/15, 9:41 AM
rehajm said...: do it magnificently with insights about socks, but the best do it with bracing commentary about the stuff that really matters to us

1) Commentary is not comedy.

2) Socks really matter to us.; 4/2/15, 9:47 AM
Will Cate said...: To his credit, Jerry Seinfeld has given Michael Richards some work -- as the recurring character Dick Corcoran, the faux president of cable channel Crackle (which is a real channel) on his web series "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."; 4/2/15, 9:53 AM
CWJ said...: KC's best known theatre company is the Kansas City Rep. Some years back they hired Eric Rosen from Berkeley as their artistic director. He intended to make a big splash and part of his makeover was to rebrand the Rep as "fearless." They even answered the phone with "fearless." Everything was "fearless," and everything was so safe for their core audience. They pushed that rope for years and I think only recently finally gave it up.; 4/2/15, 9:56 AM
robinintn said...: "bracing commentary about the stuff that really matters to us. Sex, race, politics and religion" I hate this crap. It's not comedy, it's pandering.; 4/2/15, 10:29 AM
Quaestor said...: As I understand it Michael Richard's problem, his real problem, the problem that led to THE PROBLEM, is lack of aplomb standup-wise, known in the Trade as SADD.

Richards is an actor with basically one property to sell, which is bad when that property gets stale. It happened to Charlie Chaplin and his "little tramp," and it happened Buster Keaton and his poker-faced pedrolino, and it has happened to Chevy Chase since he pounded the last dregs of comedy out of his Clark Griswold persona. If Richards is to make a comeback he'll need a fresh treatment of Kramer to sell, perhaps Kramer the zany retirement home denizen.

Trevor Noah will get rehabbed. He has that redemptive browness.; 4/2/15, 10:57 AM
Scott M said...: By the way, if Trevor Noah can be brushed off and set aright, can we bring back Michael Richards?

Nope. ARBLEGARBLE only works in one ideological direction.; 4/2/15, 10:58 AM
n.n said...: Does the comedy make the elites look bad? Affirmative Action giveth and taketh, selectively.; 4/2/15, 11:00 AM
CatherineM said...: Michael Richards is not a stand up (even if he was trying to be) and what he said was not in humor, or as part of a joke, but in anger.

Before all of this Twitter outrage, what bothered me about Trevor Noah is that he hasn't "paid his dues," where I would assume he could fill Stewart's shoes. I thought, you don't have ANYONE else? He was the best choice?; 4/2/15, 11:16 AM
JAORE said...: Don't let humorless people decide what is funny or acceptable as comedy.

- Me; 4/2/15, 11:16 AM
William said...: Since when did comedians become the unelected legislators of mankind. When I was growing up, Bob Hope, Martin & Lewis, Sgt. Bilko were not looked to for insight and guidance about the complex moral problems that society faced.; 4/2/15, 11:24 AM
Bystander said...: Mr. Seinfeld is a great comedian but he does not understand socks. The "sock" is but the larval stage of the coat hanger. Most of the socks that escape from your dryer migrate to your closet. Only a few take a wrong turn and die in the streets.; 4/2/15, 12:14 PM
RonF said...: No. Good stand-up comedy gets people to laugh. The more they laugh, the better it is. If they don't laugh, it's bad stand-up comedy.; 4/2/15, 12:19 PM
Brando said...: We SHOULD give Michael Richards a pass. Consider the following:

1) Richards is a comedian.

2) Hecklers are scumbags.

3) Hecklers throw comedians off their game--potentially ruining a show for everyone.

4) Some comedians handle hecklers well, others get flustered and in their frustration lash out with whatever they got to shut the heckler up.

5) Richards unfortunately lashed out with racial slurs, for which he apologized.

Why not give him a pass? Yes it would be nice if he had avoided the racial slur, but this is why you don't heckle--you're screwing up someone's set and they're going to hit back with whatever comes to mind, often without thinking. Comedians deserve a lot of lattitude on that.; 4/2/15, 12:25 PM
richard mcenroe said...: "...can we bring back Michael Richards?"

No, because privilege and, um, reasons...; 4/2/15, 12:43 PM
richard mcenroe said...: "Shocking the audience" is a profoundly bourgeois ambition. Going where the material takes you is artistic integrity.; 4/2/15, 12:44 PM
richard mcenroe said...: It's the difference between "Wild Things" and "Lolita"...; 4/2/15, 12:45 PM
Known Unknown said...: Now try are being hoisted by their own retard (sic).

Been there, done that.; 4/2/15, 1:08 PM
Anonymous said...: "can we bring back Michael Richards?"

Call our speakers bureau at 1.888.550.6672 to get appearance booking fees for Michael Richards.

http://www.nopactalent.com/celebrity/michael-richards-speaker-appearance-booking-agent.php

Be the change you want to see in others and do a video chat with Micheal Richards on your blog.; 4/2/15, 1:15 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Comedians walk a fine line, but they can handle it, if they're any good. They have to SHOCK (even if the material isn't offensive or controversial, they still have to shock a laugh out of us), but they shouldn't be shocking for its own sake. They also need to be original, or at least stand out, and so far, the only thing outstanding about Noah, AFAIK, is his background.; 4/2/15, 2:12 PM