A while back, I thought of what I believe is a completely original joke. I could find no evidence on the internet that anyone had ever told this joke before. It isn't that good a joke - its only virtue is that it's original - so I didn't share it with anyone except mi cielito in case he could use it (he couldn't), but I did sort of plan the wording and timing and delivery in case a perfect opportunity to use it ever came up IRL. But none did, so the joke remained in the back of my mind.
In the shower this morning, I thought of a way to improve delivery, so I workshopped the joke as I shampooed and exfoliated. I experimented with wording and timing, used different voices and gestures, and played with how much build-up it could bear before you could see the punchline coming. The joke is now better than it was before. It's still not that good a joke, again its only virtue is that it's original, but I'd say there's a 50% chance you'd laugh if I told it to you now with the new delivery.
The problem is, it isn't funny to me any more. I've told it to myself so many times that it's just dull and predictable to me now. Unless the perfect opening came up naturally, I'd never tell the joke, because I don't go around telling people jokes that I don't find funny. (I do sometimes go around telling people jokes that they don't think are funny, but that's a whole 'nother thing.)
This makes me think that it must be very bizarre to be a stand-up comedian. They tell the same jokes over and over - and surely they work on them before they start telling them on stage - so the jokes must cease to be funny to the comedian at some point. And yet they continue to tell them. That's a strange thing to do. Except for the most socially inept, people don't usually go around continuing to tell the same jokes over and over. And you don't usually go around assuming that something will get a laugh if it doesn't make you laugh, but that's exactly what stand-up comedians do. And they make it work. And the greats even make it work when the audience knows exactly what's coming. I wonder if that really skews their ability to socialize normally?
1 comment:
Not being a comic, I can only speculate -- but don't you think they probably tweak their wording, timing and delivery, just as you did with your joke? In that way, it probably takes awhile until the joke is 'perfect' to them. I bet they focus more on that than on the 'funniness' after awhile.
I know comics do tend to tell the same jokes over and over again. But most I've seen seem to cycle some jokes in and out of their act and usually mix in some newer material, so as to lessen the routine feeling from their side.
I would think, after awhile, they do get really tired of a lot of their material and it is no longer funny to them. But I would also think it must be comforting and a real sense of accomplishment to know the act is razor sharp and most of it is gonna 'kill' every time.
Plus, it's new (or classic) to the audience and I would think the comic has to feed off that idea as his/her reward sometimes.
Or else it's back to work on new material. :)
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