Judd Apatow recently spoke to Vulture’s David Marchese about a number of things, including his return to stand-up (8/7/2017). Apatow says that, “Stand-up is what I love more than anything else.” He also says it makes him more “connected to audiences,” “in touch with what people out in the world are actually laughing about. It’s easy to lose touch with reality when you’re just sitting in your house.” Then Apatow gets a bit more into the comic’s role.
Stand-up’s job
Two questions, and Apatow’s answers, are particularly interesting to me here:
But you’re not shy about being pretty aggressive on there. Are you ever concerned that by being so active on Twitter and speaking out so strongly about politics, you’re just adding to the feeling that we’re all yelling at each other all the time?
No, because comedians are supposed to point out madness and hypocrisy. What I’m doing is pretty straightforward: I think we have an incompetent, corrupt president, so I point that out. And it’s also the comedian’s job to give people some levity — we’re all so stressed out now from not being able to trust the person in charge of the country. Every comedian has to decide the tone of the joke that they’re comfortable with, but what are we all going to do? Not talk about what’s going on? Should we have not made jokes about Monica Lewinsky or George W. Bush invading Iraq? This is how we have our national discussion.
It wasn’t that long ago when all mainstream audiences expected from comedians was to wear a blazer and tell inoffensive one-liners. Why has there been this shift in comedy toward moralizing and self-confession?
It’s because people are hungrier for honesty now, which is something they’re not getting from other places. Comedians have no motivation to lie and almost every other public figure we encounter nowadays does. Politicians are lying to you all day long; comedians are telling you what they really feel. I think it also has to do with the enormous media need for content. People uploading their personal experience, in whatever format, has become modern entertainment. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I’m as interested in a guy telling me about his daily difficulties as I am in a well-crafted movie.
Marchese is right to point out that mainstream comedy has changed. Apatow seems to be one of those, like George Lopez, that believes comics have always been truthsayers (parrhesiastes), speaking truth to power. However, Jay Leno is right to point out that comics do have motivation to lie, if their sole goal (comic intent) is to get a laugh.
The truth is most comics just want a really good laugh. That’s what you’re going for, and if there happens to be some truth in it, well that’s really nice, too. But most comics will lie their teeth off if it gets them a good laugh.
So no, comics are not naturally truthsayers – at least, not any more than anyone else. Their honesty is always tainted by the goal to make us laugh. And are they really confessing themselves, or choosing to confess the funniest bits – and to fudge the details – in the funniest way possible for the maximum laugh?
However, Apatow is right: in our current times, comedy (and by comics on Twitter) is how we have our national discussion, if we’re going to. Comedy might be an inclusive way to go about the conversation, and it might therefore be the most effective way, despite it’s long and circuitous route. Time will tell.
Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Additions?
