The post from yesterday made me think a lot about confidence..
Published: February 12th 2023, 7:06:22 pm
The post from yesterday made me think a lot about confidence in stand-up.
One of the things I admire about the Danish comedy circuit (I'm from Denmark and started out in Denmark -- I'm not just a massive comedy nerd who knows everything about all comedy circuits) is that it is hard being funny in Danish. The language doesn't lend itself to comedy that well.
So in order to be funny, your jokes have to be really, really funny. Really, clearly funny. It's hard to describe the difference in jokes - but I am going to try.
To me, there is a spectrum from 'hard jokes' to 'soft jokes'.
In one end of the spectrum, we've got hard jokes.
Hard jokes are jokes that are so obviously jokes, that they can be said by anyone or written down on a piece of paper, and people would instantly recognise it as a joke and they would probably laugh. It's usually a case of 'set up + punchline'. If you look up someone like Mitch Hedberg, Jimmy Carr, Anthony Jeselnik, Sarah Silverman - comedians who do mostly one-liners - you'll see a bunch of hard jokes.
In the whole other end of the spectrum, there are jokes that are technically not jokes.
Say, someone says 'What's up with women?'
That in itself is not funny. At all. If it's written down, you just sigh and think.. Oh what now?
But say it's said by a comedian who is famously a hardcore feminist. He is someone you're a huge fan of. He was recently accused of being a misogynist by the far right because some far right nutcase misunderstood a tweet of his. He was on the news and completely tore down this right wing guy with facts and jokes. You love him, you're also a feminist and now you're going to see his show 'Feminist'. He comes out on stage in front of thousands of people, all whooping and cheering. The applause slows down and eventually, it's quiet. The whole room breathes as one, as you all anticipate the first words from his mouth. He smiles knowingly and goes, 'What's up with WOMEN?'
You know that 'What's up with women?' is a parody because you know that in the 80s and 90s, that's what most straight, white men would say before doing misogynist jokes. You know that this is far from what this comedian would ever do. You know it's a reference to old timey misogynist comedy and this guy's latest news stories.
Then, it's funny. The crowd erupts with laughter. A knowing laughter. Because you all know. You're all in this together.
Those are what I call 'soft jokes' - they are jokes that depend on context, delivery and confidence. You probably have to like the comedian, in order to recognise it as a joke. It's the opposite of a hard joke - where, even if you hate the person and the joke, you still can't deny that it IS a joke.
Context, delivery and confidence.
More on this in part two, out tomorrow!