Humour is a weapon - so you better learn how to use it

[Jasper]

Oh, hell yes.  I don't think I ever saw this.

[The Wizard]

 

This is amazing.

[Triple Zero]

Oh yes, this is a good one.

Cain, you can be proud of it, this is one of those essays whose lessons I still remember quite often.

[Cramulus]

Cain, permission to repost @ 23ae?

[Hoser McRhizzy]

Printed.

This was an awesome read, and really useful.  Good bump!

[Brotep]

This is excellent.

Stand-up in particular is more a funny man doing material than a man doing funny material.  To a degree, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The man who is delivering the material is funny, therefore his material must be funny too.  This identity/rhetorical sleight of hand is not always true, but it is worth remembering and considering.  Delivery is key, and cannot be understated.

I work with the developmentally disabled. There are a couple of characters who like to trash talk, but they don't make any sense. Nevertheless, their delivery carries such defiant gusto that the other clients invariably burst out laughing.

[Jasper]

Yeah, just imagine any performer taking Emo Phillips' material and trying to treat it like comedy.  It would suck.

Emo makes it comedy by being Emo.

[BadBeast]

Even the most Despotic of Medieval Kings understood this, and had their Court Jester. His job was to remind the King that nothing, and no-one was too grand, or sacred to have the piss ripped out of them now and again. 

[Jasper]

I think more likely it gets old having your ass kissed by everyone.