Why You Should Ask an Academic
An article published last July in the Chronicle of Higher Education reappeared in my FB news feed the other day, and it says basically what I’ve been on a...
Tag: standup
Getting on Stage
Perhaps the hardest part of stand-up for many people is actually getting on stage. Seinfeld’s joke about fear of public speaking versus death is legendar...
Why You Should Think Jokes Through
Comedy teacher, comic and writer Jerry Corley gives three reasons to develop your writing. They are: Writing Makes it Easier to Build Structure into your Materi...
Why Do the Work?
I hear critiques of comics, most recently of Louis CK, that “he seemed to be rambling,” through his first abortion joke. They don’t seem to r...
A Note on Spontaneity
I should preface my process by saying that writing is often unexamined. People think that jokes “just happen,” spontaneously. And they do – ...
Incongruity Theory
Incongruity Theory is based on Aristotle’s (and Cicero’s and others’) view of humor as derived from expectancy violation. Proponents of this view include James ...
Relief Theory
Sometimes called the “Tension Release Theory,” this is Freud’s (and others’) view that humor is derived from a release of pent up energy. More about the theory:...
Superiority Theory
Socrates/Plato’s (and others’) view of humor as derived from ridicule. The forms usually attached to this mode of humor are irony, parody, and satire, wh...
Humorous Modes
Today's update is on the three main theories that have emerged from philosophy, psychology and linguistics to explain humor (Berger; Meyer; Morreall; Raskin): S...
Bill Maher’s “N-Bomb” Wasn’t a Big Deal, But Neither Was It Funny.
Warning: “explicit language.” Bill Maher said the “N-word” (Bailey, DeMarche, Guerrasio, Italiano, Itzkoff, Kiefer, Lopez, Obeidallah, P...