Stand-Up Comedy and Story


This post first appeared on Oct. 20, 2010.

I may be one of the few people who view stand-up comedy as an art form. It’s funny—I think we all agree on that. But stand-up has roots that grow deeply into history. The court jesters and troubadours dealt in comedy. Tales of humor and mirth. Even as children, one of the early social skills we develop is understanding jokes. Later, we even learn to tell them.

Kathy Griffin is a current comedy favorite. She’s elevated stand-up to its purest sense—hour-long specials where she spins one long tale of her life on the D-List. Brilliant. (If you’re not familiar with her work, I chose an interview clip that’s lightly humorous, but clean. She can also be highly offensive, so proceed to view her clips on YouTube with caution—but laugh you @** off.)

Many of our favorite comedy performers came from stand-up:Bill Cosby,  Bob Newhart, Robin Williams and Redd Foxx (highly offensive adult language, but very funny, I’m not including a link, but there’s a ton of him on YouTube).

Brilliant comedy shows include

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Humor often plays better with visuals, but there have been great funny stories in literature. A classic is The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy(DON’T PANIC).

The main questions today are these: why is humor so central to humans? Why do we crave laughter? Why does it cross so many barriers and help bond us?

And if you care to share, where do you draw the line with comedy? What’s *too* funny and edging toward offensive? Monty Python once rode the edge, but nowadays is it South Park? Family Guy?

Heads up, I’m on the road today with very limited internet access until late tonight. I’ll be chiming in on among the comments on Thursday. Thanks for understanding, and please, talk amongst yourselves!