Getting Laughs is Easy or Writing Jokes is Hard.

Getting Laughs is Easy or Writing Jokes is Hard.

     One of the hardest parts of being a stand-up, for me at least, is the over analysis of my material. I have some sort of mental block that does not allow me to just "be funny" without trying to be overly clever at the same time. And on the flip side of that coin, I also sometimes am "so clever" that the joke only works in the context of my brain and does not and cannot transfer to audience simply because of the fact that they are not me. So no matter how funny I may think something is, unless I can somehow project my thoughts into the audience member, they will never get the same enjoyment out of it...or enjoyment at all most of the time...based on the silence I usually experience.

     The struggle then is how to write a joke that is both funny and clever. I believe I pride myself on having a little bit of artistic integrity when it comes to my writing. I try not to write cookie cutter material that is guaranteed to get a laugh. New jokes tend to toe that line, but the process of development usually brings them out of that.

   Even though breaking down my material too much sometimes can be a detriment to my process, it is also one of my favorite parts of creating new material. I recently had an idea for a joke that, at first, I thought was really funny. But in the end just turned out to convey the wrong ideas for the level of comedy I am at.

"I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal about Jason Collins being the first gay professional sports player, Tom Brady has been in the NFL for years."

(Feel free to insert whoever you want in the Quarterback reference in that joke. I just use Brady because I don't think I dislike any team more than the patriots. seriously. I can't stand them. I didn't even capitalize their name there. Disssssed.)

At first glance that might get a laugh. But when you actually break down the intent and pieces of the joke it actually comes across as something absurd. Firstly because you are using two different versions of one word. "Gay" in the first part of the joke references Collins as a homosexual, where as when you apply it to Brady it comes off as the "negative and stupid definition". So even though at first it may seem funny to call Tom Brady gay, the syntax really doesn't make sense. I think this is why I believe it is easy to get laughs, but hard to write jokes.

Laughs fade, jokes stick. People don't remember laughs, but they remember jokes. That's why I would rather work and write good material then just worry about how many laughs I can get per minute.