Friday 31 July 2009

in comments yesterday Jody macGregor drew my attention to this:
Jokes are funny. Picking them apart isn't. Witness my clown autopsy- Charlie Brooker -The Guardian- Monday 27 July 2009
In each case, brevity is key. I assume these gags stemmed from the (stand-up) comic in question making a passing observation (eg "I suppose you could argue that walls are intrinsically better than people at tennis"), remembering and noting it as funny, then trying to cram said observation into the shortest space possible. As demonstrations of condensed poetic skill go, they're as impressive – to me at any rate – as the works of, say, Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy or Kurt Vonnegut.
Not that they should be given equal recognition. No comic should, ever. It spoils the fun, somehow. That's why most articles on "how comedy works", including the one you're reading now, feel so antiseptically mirthless: they're like clown autopsies, but less amusing. (more at the link)
He's obviously another student of the great Professor Bean:


In other news:
Police give chase after seven-year-old speeds off in dad's car to avoid going to church

Labels: ,

4 Comments:

Anonymous Iain said...

Hi Eddie,

Just wanted to leave a comment to say how much I enjoyed The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard. I just read it and I thought it was a really beautiful book. I was completely charmed by it.

Iain.

31 July 2009 at 18:46:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Yoga Gal said...

In other News, well at least that story doesn't make you want to start a revolution: the big story in the New York Times "Big Banks Paid Billions in Bonuses amid Wall Street Crisis" well that was a good use of tax payer money to bail them out! Why can't they do the honorable thing like the bankers did in the 1920's crash and just jump off a building!

31 July 2009 at 23:59:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Eddie Campbell said...

iain- thanks for saying so.

Geri- Yes, I googled that just now and read it. ugh! They should all jump indeed.

1 August 2009 at 00:13:00 GMT-5  
Anonymous Wow Gold said...

Nice blog. I liked it.

3 August 2009 at 03:42:00 GMT-5  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home