It’s a common theme in discussions of comedy, which I haven’t yet gotten around to addressing here: Is comedy all about pushing the envelope, and at what point does it just become obscene. However, Brent Owen’s recent interview with Alex Stypula for Leo Weekly.com (9/6/2017) can get us started.
Pushing the envelope
Owens asks,
Does good stand-up comedy push people outside of their comfort zone?
Not necessarily. I think it’s more of a challenge to do that. I think the laughs are far more rewarding when you take people somewhere they don’t think they want to go — and then they find themselves laughing. That said, I definitely don’t do that on purpose, that’s just the kind of stuff that comes up in my mind to try and make funny.
There’s a lot to like in this answer. First off, the recognition that stand-up is not just about creating shock. A lot of comics, particularly young ones, think that gross-out humor and the shock it creates are the height of hilarity, when many audience members may laugh out of surprise or embarrassment, but maybe not enjoyment.
It is a challenge to have the finesse and tact to address a taboo topic and make it funny, and that’s another point: the material is made funny, the audience “find[s] themselves laughing.” Thus, Stypula avoids casting the audience as objects, while he implies that the material is funny when the audience laughs, which resonates with Limon’s theory of laughter. Here, the audience are perhaps not full agents, but still play an active roll.
Apologizing
Owens then asks,
Have you ever written a joke that you had to apologize for later?
No. I’ve definitely told jokes that weren’t very good, or were a bit too much, that went a little too far. But you know quickly by telling them once or twice, and then you get rid of it. But I’ve never had to apologize for any of that.
In my published work, I’ve expressed that perhaps the best thing a comic can do after a joke is poorly received is to shut up about it – remain silent. That was what Stephen Colbert did after his speech at the 2007 White House Correspondent’s Dinner. The silence of the comic allows the joke to remain “in play,” an open text that is up for re-interpretation. So I would agree, they shouldn’t apologize, but yes, they should change.
That’s the problem with some shock comics, they don’t recognize when they’ve gone too far – or rather, they recognize they got a reaction, and sometimes they revel in it, and sometimes they berate the audience for being too sensitive and not having a sense of humor. Doing this only further alienates the audience.
On political humor
I commiserate with Stypula, who says,
I wish I could broach politics, but I can’t. It’s just not in my wheelhouse. I mean, I really don’t like Donald Trump… I mean I don’t like him a lot. My mind is fried even thinking about it. It’s such a bizarre weird joke for what he is and what he’s doing, it would be hard to make a joke out of it. It’s like this whole country is a joke at the moment.
So no politics.
Yeah, my jokes are getting more observational these days. Things that occur to me or something that happens to me, and I then extrapolate on that to the umpteenth degree. There’s a bit I do about pretzels that was something that really happened to me; it was a four-second interaction. Now, it’s a six-minute bit.
I feel that. If humor is tragedy plus time, I find that not enough time has passed for me to construct a joke, and with political humor, it’s all about the contemporary moment. I’m constantly thinking, “Damn, I wish I’d been quick enough to think of that,” but it’s too close.
Truth telling
But the other part of the above quote is that he acknowledges that although there might be a kernel of truth, it’s extended and extrapolated until it’s blown way out of proportion. That strikes me as a more self-aware response.
Summary
So, another brief interview, but dense in terms of the topics he touches on. Although Stypula is praised for his ability to push the envelope, he acknowledges that it can go to far, and you have to know when to pull back. He recognizes that the jokes are funny when the audience finds themselves laughing, and if they don’t, you should not apologize, but consider losing the material. Like him, I wish I could do political jokes, but I’ll settle for adapting my life situations for the stage.
Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Additions?
