Funny

Please do hurry and read this excellent article by Steve Martin in February's Smithsonian magazine, Being Funny.

What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh.

To test my idea, I went onstage and began: "I'd like to open up with sort of a 'funny comedy bit.' This has really been a big one for me...it's the one that put me where I am today. I'm sure most of you will recognize the title when I mention it; it's the "Nose on Microphone" routine [pause for imagined applause]. And it's always funny, no matter how many times you see it."

I leaned in and placed my nose on the mike for a few long seconds. Then I stopped and took several bows, saying, "Thank you very much." "That's it?" they thought. Yes, that was it. The laugh came not then, but only after they realized I had already moved on to the next bit.

As a child, I always wanted Steve Martin to be funny, but I didn't laugh much, and it puzzled me in a back-of-the-brain way that I never verbalized. Now I know why. He was doing it on purpose.

Comedy is subversive. It can't not be. But subverting the methodology for understanding subversion is the kind of thing that can get you run out of town. Steve Martin's greatest trick might have been remaining viable while he was screwing with people's head all those years.

I don't necessarily want to screw with people (not necessarily). However, this is the kind of independent, anarchic thinking that I strive for. I rarely achieve it on my own; I usually have to be shown. Today, I've been shown.