-
(upbeat instrumental music)
-
- [Shannon] Self-improvement-style advice
-
is often a bunch of useless
platitudes and nonsense
-
peddled by people who just want money.
-
And it's even worse online
with clickbait listicles
-
and the YouTube video version
of clickbait listicles.
-
Or at least that was certainly
my experience when Googling,
-
how to be funny or how to get funnier.
-
Either you get weird sociopathic
woo-woo pickup artist.
-
- What's up?
-
This is Will Powers from Evolution of Man.
-
And what I want to talk to you about today
-
is high-status humor
-
or what I like to call, prize frame humor.
-
- [Shannon] Trick people into liking you
-
or trick women into thinking you're funny
-
so they'll sleep with you stuff.
-
- Hiya fellow Pinnacle Person.
-
So in this video you're
gonna learn exactly
-
a couple ways how to make a
girl roll over with laughter
-
and basically make her laugh
all the way to your bed.
-
- [Shannon] Or really, really
basic structural advice
-
on comedy, yes and, rule
of threes, or, y'know,
-
put down your phone, be
yourself, which isn't helpful.
-
There's a lot I want to
talk about in this video
-
but in the interest of
differentiating myself
-
from clickbait or stringing viewers along
-
before I get to my central thesis,
-
the central theory I've
concocted on the fastest way
-
to be funny, the fastest and
most direct way to get funnier,
-
I'm just going to say
it outright right now.
-
The fastest way to get funnier
-
is to put yourself in a
position where being funny
-
is rewarded and not
being funny is punished.
-
A lot of resources for being funnier,
-
especially specific resources
for improv or telling jokes
-
in conversation or for stand-up comedy,
-
look at comedy like a math problem
-
where you take an
established rule or format
-
and slot your own experiences
-
or observations into that formula.
-
Of course, if you're trying to be funny
-
it helps to learn the
established mechanics of comedy.
-
Especially with specific
comedic art forms or formats,
-
you should bare minimum
have an understanding
-
of what people before you figured out
-
the same way any narrative
filmmaker should at least know
-
what shot reverse shot
and a 180 degree rule are
-
even if they choose not to adhere to them.
-
This approach is certainly
helpful as a foundation.
-
But in my experience you
should look at comedy
-
the same way you would look at learning
-
a complicated language
or a series of different
-
though interconnected
complicated languages
-
whose communicability and
success are very subjective
-
and dependent on audience
rather than as a checklist
-
or a chart or a math problem
or as some objective puzzle
-
you solve and then become the
crowned king of subversion.
-
I don't speak French and, yeah,
-
I'd learn some French through
Duolingo or French classes
-
at a college or online, but
if I wanted to be fluent,
-
the quickest shortcut
is to go to a country
-
where people speak French and force myself
-
to speak to people and to learn
the language to get around
-
and function and try to
interact with a society
-
that is fluent in this language.
-
And deal with my own
failures in learning it
-
as they exist as a barrier in interaction,
-
which is perhaps a more intense motivator
-
than a bad grade or a green cartoon owl.
-
To me that's the difference
-
between having an encyclopedic
knowledge of joke formats
-
and memorizing every
Carlin or whoever bit,
-
and writing all your jokes in a vacuum
-
with just you yourself or you
-
and all the people who already like you
-
and will only ever laugh and support you,
-
versus actually going out
and performing stand-up
-
night after night to a bar
full of apathetic drunks
-
and feeling intensely which
jokes work and which jokes bomb
-
and then obsessively tweaking
them night after night
-
and hanging around other stand-up comics
-
who are sometimes
vicious and bitter people
-
who are very withholding
of laughter and validation
-
and trying to get along
with them and fit in.
-
Try being unfunny in that environment
-
and see how it makes you feel.
-
I think my answer to the
question of how to be funny
-
is a very ugly and unpleasant answer.
-
It might not be good for
you as a human being.
-
It might not develop
healthy interpersonal traits
-
and in fact it can do the opposite.
-
Like with a lot of other
art and performance,
-
you might sacrifice other
aspects of yourself for it.
-
It's not healthy to invest your self-worth
-
in the approval of an
audience or of your peers,
-
especially approval based
on laughter response,
-
but that's the shortcut.
-
And as far as I can tell, every
funny person I've ever known
-
has experienced some form of it.
-
I made fun of the self-help and
creepy pickup artist aspects
-
of being funny, but there's
a lot of truth to the concept
-
of learning to be funny out of desperation
-
and lack of an alternative,
as a way to be liked,
-
whether by people you're attracted to
-
or by people generally, and
as a way to get attention
-
and validation you don't get elsewhere,
-
and as a way to avoid violence.
-
Making fun of yourself
before someone else can
-
as a defense mechanism or
using humor defensively
-
in an aggressive way or to
disarm a threat, break tension,
-
or de-escalate an intense situation.
-
You also don't have to
be funny to be liked.
-
There are so many other
things that are more valuable
-
in a person than being funny.
-
Kindness and empathy and
openness and flexibility
-
and vulnerability, that
can sometimes be lacking
-
in super funny people.
-
Humor can be a shortcut to
being liked and accepted,
-
and I've known people who are really funny
-
and fun to be around and riff with
-
but who aren't the best people.
-
Improv is collaborative,
filmmaking is collaborative,
-
any kind of collaborative art
is maybe going to be harder
-
to be successful at if you're
a total antisocial jerk
-
to people, but stand-up
is a very solitary art,
-
and there's so little incentive
for someone who is funny
-
and who is good at it to also
be a nice, empathetic person.
-
I'm not saying someone is
a good or better person
-
because they do improv versus
stand-up, that's absurd.
-
And I have so many friends
I love and respect who I met
-
when they were doing stand-up
and some of them still do it,
-
and while I have a
tremendous amount of respect
-
for accomplished improv comedians,
-
I actually prefer to watch stand-up
-
and prefer it as an art form,
in part because bad stand-up
-
as a singular five minutes at
a time at an open mic art form
-
is tolerable, but bad failed improv
-
because of the more vulnerable and sincere
-
and supportive collaborative
nature of it, is so bad,
-
it's like the worst thing
in the world to watch.
-
I'd cringe so hard and
feel so bad for people
-
and don't enjoy it whereas
with like open mic stand-up
-
it's like, okay, in three minutes
-
this will turn over to the next person.
-
A lot of current edgier comedians
-
and older "you can't joke
about anything anymore"
-
dinosaur comedians put too
much value on being funny
-
as the pinnacle of human
cultural achievement or something
-
in a really egomaniacal
way to shield themselves
-
from criticism or
introspection or evolution,
-
as if being funny is both static
-
and important above all else.
-
Such a noble and subversive cause
-
to tell hack rape jokes at an open mic.
-
You know, the content of the
joke, the impact of the joke,
-
what telling the joke
is doing to the comic,
-
whatever you are sacrificing
in yourself or in others
-
to get there, not just in offensive jokes,
-
but the strain of really personal
or self-deprecating jokes.
-
Not that they're all straining,
but the potential strain.
-
That doesn't matter, all that matters
-
to these people is being funny.
-
And they have their way to be
funny, this, masculine, mean,
-
unempathetic, aggressive
style focused on domination
-
and resistant to shifting cultural mores,
-
and that's what's funny.
-
For one, if you're really the
funniest person in the world,
-
pretending humor is some kind
-
of measurable objective quotient.
-
It's not an audience's fault
-
if they don't think you're funny,
-
especially if your
material panders to people
-
of your own belief set and
alienates everyone else.
-
If you think a cliched, hacky,
shallow pro-feminism joke
-
or Cheeto in chief anti-Trump
joke is virtue signaling
-
and bad comedy and the death of comedy
-
but you get on stage and tell a,
-
"there's too many genders now"
joke and think that's brave
-
and funny for no other reason
-
than because it reaffirms your beliefs
-
and upsets people you disagree with,
-
and when it bombs you lean
into it and say people
-
who criticize you are too
sensitive then you're deluded
-
on top of being unfunny
and having bad opinions.
-
And two, there being a time
and a place for everything
-
and always trying to have room
for context and for empathy
-
is such a foundational,
basic social etiquette.
-
One time several years
ago, I was hanging out with
-
some people who had just lost
a relative in a car accident.
-
We were at a party
playing Apples to Apples.
-
And one of the cards I got
dealt was, a car crash.
-
I'm 100% a morbid sicko
who finds jokes about grief
-
and death funny and in another game
-
I'm sure I could have found
a good use for that card.
-
But in that moment I felt
dread about the possibility
-
of even accidentally playing it.
-
Not only were the people
I was playing with
-
not sickos like me, they
took the game very literally
-
and probably wouldn't have
found that card funny anyway,
-
but even if the card combination
would have made me laugh
-
or made other people around laugh,
-
whatever I woulda gotten out of that
-
would not have been worth upsetting people
-
who just lost someone
-
But by the rule of like,
putting being funny first,
-
I should have shown those cucks
-
and made my car accident
joke and called them babies
-
who don't appreciate the
nuanced fine art of comedy
-
if they looked put off or upset
-
by me being massively disrespectful.
-
I was never, like, an
online bigot or harasser.
-
I never told anyone to kill themselves
-
or anything horrible like that,
-
and I talked about this a lot already
-
in my political correctness
video if you want to see
-
how I feel more specifically
about edgy comedy.
-
This video isn't really,
I talk about edgy comedy
-
in this video, but that's
not really what it's about.
-
But that video is definitely about that
-
so link in the description.
-
This is kind of a companion
video to that one.
-
But I spent my late
teens and early twenties
-
glued to a computer posting
on 4chan and edgy forums
-
and then spent my mid-twenties hanging out
-
with stand-up comics around Atlanta.
-
And I definitely did get
funnier and a lot better
-
at a specific brand of very
cutting, very mean humor.
-
And that helped my acceptance
in those communities,
-
especially the online ones.
-
More so the online ones.
-
If you're unfunny in an environment
-
where all people really
care about is who is funny
-
and dominating each other
or dominating outsiders
-
in that very, especially mid-to late-2000s
-
masculine online humor way,
I mean, then you're worthless
-
to that environment's value system,
-
and nobody wants to feel worthless.
-
Then I got older and I
realized that being funny
-
at the expense of other
people who don't deserve it
-
or, even separate from edgy
or politically correct humor,
-
seeing being funny as a competition,
-
as if laughs and approval
are a limited resource
-
and you have to immediately humiliate
-
and just gut someone if
they vie for that resource
-
or having friendships
where you get that high
-
from riffing with someone
where you make each other laugh
-
and you can kind of indulge
in being a little meaner
-
until you realize what
you were indulging in
-
sometimes went too far
and was not healthy.
-
I had learned a lot about how to be funny
-
that I kind of had to forget,
-
and I let go of unhealthy
relationships where humor
-
was the only real foundation.
-
Like, I had to learn that
lesson multiple times
-
over years of my life.
-
And at this point while I find that style
-
of dominance-oriented humor too mean
-
for me to use all the time,
-
while I'm occasionally
tempted to indulge in it
-
or do laugh at it when
other people use it,
-
I certainly still
appreciate irreverent humor
-
when it's not targeted
at marginalized people.
-
It's inflexible and it is not appropriate
-
for every situation that calls
for humor in the first place.
-
It's certainly not useful
for general interactions
-
with other human beings
who aren't stand-up comics
-
or irony poisoned internet freaks.
-
I didn't write this
-
because I think I'm the
funniest person ever
-
or an expert on being personally funny
-
I wrote it because I want to
be funnier and I have struggled
-
with being self-conscious
about whether I'm as funny
-
as other people I work with
on podcasts or live shows
-
at conventions, and I
spent a period of time
-
neurotically obsessing over it.
-
I've been doing way
more comedy-focused work
-
or work where I need to be funny
-
to keep up with everyone else.
-
And at some point suddenly,
in those situations,
-
after five years of being
Shannon Strucci, video essayist,
-
it didn't matter at all if I could write
-
and edit a compelling video essay
-
because now I'm trying to establish myself
-
in a very different field.
-
Like, who cares?
-
And I'm working regularly with
people who have done stand-up
-
for a decade or who have
written professionally for TV
-
or whatever and who I know they're funny.
-
It's not a question to me
if we're talking about them,
-
and I was forced to get
outside of my comfort zone
-
and work through some insecurities
-
that I would never have to have dealt with
-
if I had stayed just a video essayist.
-
Comedy helps in making video
essays and making them engaging
-
and I've tried to
incorporate it into my work,
-
and I am proud of some of the visual gags
-
and editing gags I've come up with,
-
but being okay at editing gags
-
doesn't suddenly make me a comedian.
-
We've had a lot of really
cool and really funny guests
-
on "Critical Bits," the podcast I'm on,
-
but by far the time I
was the most intimidated
-
and felt the most pushed to be better
-
was when we had Mark Meer on.
-
Meer is probably best
known for his voice work,
-
but he's an incredible stage
performer and improviser
-
and tabletop role player and
he was just so funny in a way
-
that was so quick and weird and creative.
-
- [Mark] You did more?
-
Don't hog it all, you swine!
-
- [Shannon] And he just
threw himself into voices
-
and bits that I either would
have been too self-conscious
-
and hesitant to do or not
able to do in the first place.
-
- [Mark] I am adult human like you.
-
(group laughing)
-
- [Man] That explains--
-
- [Man] When he says
that his skin ripples.
-
- [Man] Why yes, normal
Earth human, of course.
-
- [Mark] Yes, the best
kind, normal Earth human.
-
- [Shannon] Either limited
in my voice acting ability
-
or in, not at this point,
-
being capable of thinking that quickly.
-
- [Mark] Okay, well, so
long kids, best of luck.
-
- [Shannon] Oh, can we like get
-
your cell phone number or something?
-
- [Mark] Oh, it's threep, okay, see you.
-
(group laughing)
-
- [Shannon] And we recorded
that episode in person, too
-
so here's this super funny man
-
with years of improv experience
-
who's been doing voice
acting for like 20 years
-
just killing it sitting
right in front of me.
-
And I'm trying to play off of
that and trying to keep up.
-
And I didn't bomb, I think I did well.
-
- [Mark] As we we're
walking, I'm also talking.
-
So, you look like you've
been having some fun.
-
Tell me, what have you been up to, hm?
-
- [Shannon] Oh, I'm sorry,
I have no idea who you are.
-
And I just start running away.
-
- [Mark] Oh yes, well,
I've seen better days
-
as you can probably tell.
-
Sheriff Raoul Duke, you don't remember?
-
- [Shannon] Nope, and I, how far am I?
-
(group laughing)
-
But it still energized
me to want to be better.
-
On top of always wanting to be better
-
when my co-hosts are so funny.
-
When you work with people
who are good at what they do
-
you want to honor that and
at least keep up with them.
-
So I'm a lot better about
it now and more comfortable
-
but especially in 2019,
I got very in my own head
-
about trying to be funnier and be funny
-
without indulging in being
mean, and at the same time
-
I got a couple of very
flattering CuriousCats
-
asking about being funnier, like this one
-
referencing "Critical Bits"
-
I'll link the full answer
in the description.
-
There's more comedy advice
there from me and my friends
-
that I don't go into in this video,
-
which maybe I'll talk
about in a future video.
-
I don't know, more sort
of structural advice
-
and advice for stuff to check out.
-
But the question was, how does one improve
-
at the improvised banter you
and the crew have on the bits?
-
Would improv classes be worth
it, if you've ever taken them?
-
And here's part of my answer
-
that I basically based this essay on.
-
The most direct answer
that I could come up with,
-
and it sounds kind of
harsh or like sociopathic
-
or something, is that if you
spend time in an environment
-
that rewards you for being funny
-
and punishes you for not being funny,
-
you get way funnier way faster.
-
That isn't necessarily a good
thing and those environments
-
aren't always creatively
or emotionally supportive
-
or nurturing, but that's
kind of the shortcut,
-
like going to another country
when studying a language
-
to force yourself to learn to speak it.
-
When we were all talking
about this Joel said,
-
"Tell them to just get funny friends.
-
Then you'll all want
to out-riff each other
-
and will never have a
real conversation again."
-
And that is honestly what it's like
-
when you hang out with
comics, or in my case,
-
comics or edgy internet forums circa 2008.
-
And that is kind of the
language everyone speaks in.
-
And if you can't keep up
-
you get left behind in the conversation.
-
Again, this kind of environment
can be very unhealthy.
-
I have quit being friends
-
with a lot of the funniest people I know
-
because they were also mean/selfish people
-
who used laughter as validation.
-
And "be around funny people"
isn't really viable advice.
-
But you could try going to
stand-up or improv shows
-
and try doing stand-up even
if you don't take classes.
-
I think my answer for myself is,
-
especially since the idea of
just doing straight improv
-
or taking improv classes
or doing stand-up,
-
are all not anything I
am remotely interested in
-
just because of my own disposition,
-
I'm just going to have to
endure that vulnerability
-
of learning how to be funnier
without relying on bad habits
-
as I go and as I get better
on mic on the internet,
-
recorded forever, working
to keep up with people
-
with years more experience than me,
-
and always reading and
watching and listening to
-
and playing funny media as inspiration.
-
- [Man] Hello, baby!
-
- [Shannon] But I'm glad
I'm at least pushing myself
-
and learning more.
-
And it's not that I'm unfunny,
or that I think I'm unfunny.
-
Fans do think I'm funny on the show
-
and I know in conversation or on panels
-
I can make people laugh.
-
It's not that I suck at comedy.
-
It's more that it's been a
while since I challenged myself
-
with anything creative in this way.
-
I learned how to draw as a child,
-
I learned how to edit as a teenager,
-
I've enjoyed writing all my life.
-
I've gotten paid to do all
three a bunch of times.
-
I'm not saying I'm the
best at them, I just mean
-
I'm not self-conscious about them at all.
-
Like, I know that I can edit.
-
I've been editing for fifteen years,
-
I've been drawing for like 25 years,
-
since I was a small child.
-
I haven't been podcasting for 25 years!
-
And I've never done stand-up or improv
-
or any serious comedy writing,
-
so what hubris to just like
assume I'd be as good at comedy,
-
at being funny, as people
with years of experience
-
in those when I've been spending
years making video essays
-
about auteur theory and
reviewing Korean webcomics?
-
Doc Hammer, one of the showrunners
of "The Venture Brothers"
-
and an accomplished oil painter,
-
said this once about his paintings.
-
"Painting is showing up
and dealing with sucking.
-
People will get on me and
tell me that I need to relax
-
and take it easy, that
I'm not really that bad.
-
What they are missing is the
arrogance of what I am saying,
-
the fact that I know I
suck proves that I know
-
I am better than this, which
is a very arrogant thing to do,
-
so people should not be
concerned with my self-esteem.
-
When I say I suck, it actually means
-
that this is not a
representation of my ability.
-
I know that inside me is better.
-
Dealing with my sucking and
proudly saying this sucks
-
is how I get up and do it again.
-
I can't let that thing get out there.
-
I have to apologize for
it with my next piece."
-
And that's me with, like,
failed jokes that I make.
-
Anyone trying to get
funnier in other mediums
-
has to keep risking sucking and
being vulnerable in that way
-
to hopefully get better and get funnier
-
the same way stand-up comics
and improvisers do onstage.
-
But I also want to do
it without being cruel
-
and without relying too much
on laughs for validation
-
or my own self-image which are both traps
-
that are easy to fall into and excused
-
and encouraged in a lot
of comedy environments.
-
I also should say, again,
since I make fun of it so much
-
in this essay that I don't hate stand-up.
-
I love stand-up, it's not for
me personally to perform it,
-
but I have so much respect for
people who work so hard at it
-
and are good at it and
who transform the medium
-
in such cool ways in ways
-
that I never would have considered.
-
And I didn't want this essay to be like,
-
Shannon Strucci's Manifesto
Against Stand-Up Comedy
-
or to be perceived as
some kind of reaction
-
against bad personal
experiences that I had.
-
On my top films of the decade video
-
a couple of people
suggested "Nanette" to me.
-
I've seen "Nanette" and I did not like it.
-
I actually had a line
about not liking "Nanette"
-
in that video that I cut.
-
The more I linger on it, the more I think
-
I kind of hated "Nanette".
-
I have sympathy for Gadsby
and respect for her,
-
but I did not agree with her
underlying message at all,
-
and as openly critical of the defensive
-
and often unhealthy culture
around stand-up as I am,
-
I could not follow her to the
conclusions that she reached,
-
especially knowing so
many Atlanta queer comics
-
and black comics and
comics with mental illness
-
and female comics and
other comics of color
-
or comics from other marginalized groups
-
or people who are a part of multiple
-
or many marginalized
communities who use comedy
-
to talk about really difficult subjects,
-
rape, racism, disability and
ableism, self-harm, poverty,
-
suicide attempts, in a way
that is very meaningful
-
and very funny.
-
I should note, too, there's
so much variance in comedy,
-
even specifically in stand-up.
-
I'm not saying all cutting
comedy is toxic automatically
-
or any more kind of intense,
competitive comedic environment
-
is inherently problematic
or anything like that.
-
I'm not like, sitting here saying,
-
"Showtime at the Apollo"
is inherently problematic
-
and an example of toxic
masculinity, or anything like that.
-
And I'm not admonishing the
concept of roasting people
-
or of roasts generally.
-
It's more what interpersonal
issues that I experienced
-
in the Atlanta comedy
scene were kind of excused
-
or exacerbated by the comedy culture.
-
Not saying all comedy has to be nice,
-
although that was sort of my
point with the video, too,
-
that sometimes nice and
being funny are very at odds.
-
And it's been quite an
adjustment, I think,
-
for stand-up comics to be
doing shows over Zoom calls,
-
and that's been very interesting.
-
I didn't really want to talk
about the pandemic earlier on
-
in this essay, I didn't
want to date it that much
-
because I want this video
to be up in the future.
-
And I do think if you want
to get good at stand-up
-
then you just have to go to open mics.
-
You just have to do it and
fail and do it and fail
-
and do it and fail and slowly get better.
-
It's my perception anyway.
-
Anyway, thank you for watching.
-
If you haven't seen my political
correctness video that's,
-
like I said, a good companion
piece to this video,
-
and you should definitely check that out.
-
I'll link the Mark Meer
"Critical Bits" episode
-
in the description, but I
think the funniest episode
-
that we've done is probably Hoagie Allin
-
which is the episode
Branson Reese guested on.
-
- [Branson] Today is the
day that Hoagie Allin
-
is gonna take a man's life from him!
-
An eye for an eye makes
the whole world blind,
-
which is only fair!
-
- [Shannon] Branson is
a fantastic comic artist
-
and improv comedian.
-
- I'm Jimmy Buffett!
-
- [Shannon] And actor and
he has his own podcast,
-
"Rude Tales of Magic"
that's really, really good.
-
It's really funny, and
he played the very mean,
-
petty character who wanted
to kill one of the main cast
-
named Hoagie Allin.
-
And I think that's a good intro
episode of the show as well
-
if you've never listened.
-
I mean, there's spoilers,
it's a little bit later on,
-
but I think it's the best
-
out-of-context episode for our show.
-
- [Woman] Maybe you should be bad at like,
-
the witch instead--
-
- [Branson] I'm not mad at the witch.
-
She gave me a superpower!
-
- [Woman] Oh.
-
- [Branson] She said,
"You're gonna have bad luck
-
for the rest of your life
unless you learn your lesson
-
about how to treat other people
-
and how to forgive them for stuff.
-
That's it, that's a superpower!
-
All I have to do is never learn my lesson
-
and I have a power for the
rest of my life, watch this!
-
I'm gonna step out into the street
-
right in front of a car.
- Oh no, no!
-
- [Man] So the semi truck
starts to, like, honk
-
at Hoagie Allin and he
does not move and then--
-
- [Branson] I do the, like
Triple X like, suck it!
-
- [Shannon] That's my favorite
episode to link people.
-
If you'd like to support
me doing more of this,
-
I have a Patreon and a Ko-fi,
and we have merchandise
-
both for "Critical Bits" and I
had StrucciMovies merchandise
-
but nobody bought it, but
message me if you want to buy,
-
like, a StrucciMovies sticker
or postcard, I have 'em.
-
But on the free Big Cartel
-
you can only have five products at a time
-
so now it's all "Critical
Bits" stuff, thanks.