Comedy 101

[spatch]

This video clip (see it on YouTube before it gets lawyered out of existence) is like a class in comedy. A real object lesson. Ignore the bad audio sync; you can just listen if you want.

First, watch Bill Cosby do one of his more famous routines from "Himself", the routine about the father who teaches his kid football. Watch his delivery. Watch how he takes his time to set the joke up, how he tells it like a story, how he gets you going with the story as it builds and then springs the punchline on you. And then watch his reaction. His acceptance and subtly smug rejoinder at the end. He gets you good.

Immediately after, you'll watch Carlos Mencia. His first mistake? Stealing Cosby's joke. Brazenly stealing a joke from one of the best-known comedians of all time, who used it in one of the best-known comedy albums of all time. It should come as no surprise -- Mencia's a well-known hack, he's ganked routines from George Lopez, Joe Rogan has called him out live onstage, all kinds of stuff -- but it still surprises me, because Mencia steals Cosby's material and does so horribly. You couldn't even justify this as an "homage" to Cosby, because homages don't usually take the original material and butcher all the funny out of it.

Watch Mencia's delivery. Watch how he throws this story out all rapid-fire and angry, how he recites it like a kid who's learned a joke and wants to repeat it to all his relatives. Watch how he takes the story out of slightly-believable territory and into hyperbolic fantasy (Cosby's football kid has his moment of glory at a college game; Mencia's kid has to throw the winning TD at the Super Bowl and win MVP.) It's no longer a compelling story, it's a "Hey watch me tell this joke guys."

Then watch him deliver the punchline. And then his reaction.

Screaming and pounding a chair does not comedic punctuation make.

And neither does a completely needless rejoinder, complete with the rhymes-with-itch word cause it's all edgy and stuff, that explains the joke and then berates the mother. Why the hell do that? No, seriously, why? It brings nothing to the joke other than a burst of anger. Oops, hope you're not offended!

I hadn't really formed an opinion on Carlos Mencia other than I knew the "kids love him" cause he cusses and uses words like "beaner" and has a catchphrase to use on people he thinks are "retarded", and that I didn't care for any of that "I'm edgy! Look!" stuff. But when I saw this video, I realized Mencia isn't really that bad a performer; in fact, he's doing us all a valuable favor by teaching us how not to be a comedian.

Don't despair. I know. Comedy black holes hurt. So for some cheering up, here's Bill Cosby's wonderful Chocolate Cake For Breakfast routine. Note how the real punchline of the routine, the real stinger, comes in the last 30 seconds of the bit, and he doesn't have to milk it for you to get it. Amen.

Comments

[laura47.livejournal.com]

actually your description does not make me want to watch it

[coffeebeanben.livejournal.com]

There's a split second when you can actually see Mencia thinking about how to add onto the joke. Then he comes up with the NFL bit, the super bowl bit and the MVP bit.

Oh man. Maybe I should go into standup if this is all it takes to pull it off.

[littlegirltoast.livejournal.com]

Okay, I will readily admit that that was awful and a travesty and everything.

But I feel like even worse is this thing I found tangentially... following a couple similar links, I wound up at the page of this sketch alleged-comedy group, "The Next Level Oh Yah!"

Oh no

I have to warn you that far beyond being a how-not-to be funny tutorial, it is very close to being a how-not-to-want-to-breathe-or-live-any-longer tutorial.

I just can't imagine wrapping one of these and feeling like it might be fun to show it to somebody. Check out Gay Guy Beatdown for maximum lack of jokes!

[semer.livejournal.com]

Oh sweet FSM, Chocolate Cake for Breakfast... that routine was seriously a potent staple of my childhood. I don't know if I've seen it that many times; in fact, it's been repeated so much in my house that watching it again just now actually yielded some surprises - little bits forgotten here and there, slight differences in timing.

That was a bizarre and wonderful experience. Bless you, Huncle Spatch.

[muffyjo]

OMG, thank you. I've been thinking about that routine lately! (Chocolate cake). You have made my day!

[gismonda.livejournal.com]

Spatch is great! He posts about chocolate cake!

[olethrosdc.livejournal.com]

Very interesting difference.

[grumqa.livejournal.com]

You have to be careful with eggs.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

I think he stole the screaming and pounding on the chair from Sam Kinison.

Of course, if you want something that's so clearly not funny that I never ever want to see them ever, check out the Memphis Freak Engine, who turn something that's funny when it happens to cartoon characters into Hostel.

[campion7.livejournal.com]

A great comedian just has to tell a story to get people laughing.

A buffoon has to scream and howl and swear to get people even interested, let alone to laugh. (Okay, maybe Robin Williams is the exception to that.)

That's what makes Cosby one of the best.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

Actually the difference between Cosby and Mencia makes me think about the fact that the art of real comedy story telling seems to be getting lost. Is Garrison Keillor the only one who sort of does that now?

It also mirrors what's wrong with most sitcoms these days* - they aim for the quick and easy punchline after every other line, instead of telling stories that have also involve funny lines, and that lend themselves to humor (like Cheers, M*A*S*H, Taxi, etc.)** It's a deeper humor, and I think it's actually being found more often in dramas these days (anything written by Joss Whedon) than in sitcoms.

*and you kids get offa my lawn
**damn I'm old

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine used to do stand-up around Boston, and to hear him tell it, Mencia's kind of humor is what gets you gigs for the first couple of years. The crew that shows up at Dick's or the Aku-Aku doesn't want Cosby, they barely want Kinnison. They just want to hear the word "fuck". A lot. Everything I've seen from Mencia reminds me of the guys I used to have to watch warm up the crowd before my friend went on.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Here's also Lenlow's little remix, and his longer version.
I'd've lunk to his site, but those songs aren't up anymore. Dunno why.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

I really hate Carlos Mencia. He's in the same category with Toby Keith, in my book, of people who just make the world a worse place by packaging all of the mainstream prejudices as "entertainment".

[moneypenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you for setting off an embarrassingly long stint of procrastination at work today where I watched every YouTube clip and loaded every website relative to the Mencia plagiarism thing. I never, ever thought I would spend this much time thinking about Joe Rogan at all, much less in a positive light.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder that there are good solo comendians (Cosby), and there's been good comedy since Abbott and Costello (who remain the peak of comic achievment for me, but the list of funny is a bit longer now, and is always subject to change).

[invisibelle.livejournal.com]

I've never quite decided how I feel about dissecting comedy. Stealing a joke is bad, and his timing sucks, the screaming and banging are dumb... but "that bitch never played catch with you" still has a slight twinge of funny to me, especially with the ever-so-slight accent.

Still, despite having some distaste for Cosby as a person, his jokes are pretty amazing. I think of the chocolate cake routine every time I eat chocolate cake. heh.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

Cosby should totally sue Viacom for a billion dollars.