One of Jimmy Kimmel’s most successful bits on his late night show is Celebrities Read Mean Tweets. The title is self-explanatory. You can watch the full bit here. What makes watching celebrities read horrible, detestable, and vulgar tweets about themselves so amusing? According to the Benign Violation Theory, humor arises when something is wrong yet […]
With Drunk History in its 3rd season on Comedy Central, let’s look at why this show is funny. Drunk History features a guest recounting historical stories while actors re-enact the tale. The catch: the guest story-teller is wasted. Imagine watching a History Channel special and having to wait for the narrator to finish ralphing. According to the […]
Are you visiting a haunted house in the couple weeks? I’ve observed two kinds of comedy associated with haunted houses: You observe people being scared and then laugh about it. You laugh at people’s reactions to being scared. Both seem to be happening here. Check out more here. Alf Lamont, a friend and supporter of […]
After traveling the world and meeting people at the front-lines of comedy, Joel Warner and I were curious about gender differences in humor: So where did this notion that men are funnier than women come from? Maybe it’s simply because comedy, from the vaudeville scene of the early 20th century to stand-up today, has traditionally […]
The depressed and drunk comedian is a common stereotype within the entertainment business. Joel Warner and I investigate the phenomena in this Slate article: So then why do so many people assume successful comics are troubled? Maybe the problem isn’t with the comics, it’s with the act of creating comedy. Comedians are constantly disclosing problems […]
I recently had a great talk about comedy and business with Brian Carter. Brian is a marketer, comedian, and author (of The Cowbell Principle). . See more about Brian and the interview here.
Joel Warner and I delve into the history of stand-up comedy in this Slate article. It’s an odd sort of entertainment. There’s no narrative structure, no plot, backstory, sets, editors, or producers. It’s comedy boiled down to basics: a comedian and an audience, where you either score a laugh or you don’t. As British comedian […]
Joel Warner and I look into how the comedy world deals with joke stealing: With all of this joke borrowing going on, what’s an aggrieved comedian to do? Does anyone actually own a joke, after all? What legal recourse, if any, does that owner have when some hack swipes his best material? Read the full […]
