I’m sharing stand up comedy sets that I really like each day this month. Today’s set is older than I am, but would still do well if it came out tomorrow. Here’s the 1986 Tonight Show with Johnny Carson performance by Ellen Degeneres and some reasons I’m still laughing:
• PATTERN BREAKS. Once something happens two or three times, I think it’ll happen again the next time. That’s where Ellen gets me. She’ll break the pattern I anticipate and get me to laugh in that unexpected moment. For example, in the fire drill, she lists three normal duties for her three family members. Her duty comes last, is completely inconsistent, and gets me to laugh. She does this also with God telling her jokes: the first two times, she accepts, but the third time, she feigns an appointment.
• FILLING THE SCENE. The conversation with God is riddled with hilarity. I laugh so much in part because Ellen adds in all the elements of a phone call: a pause when someone’s at the door, hold music, the friend who won’t hang up. She’s able to give these elements added oomph by thinking how’d they’d play out in this celestial context: someone at “the gate,” choral singing, God telling knock knock jokes. In this way, she’s able to turn a single funny idea into laugh after laugh.
• THE UNSPOKEN WORDS. When Ellen is speaking on the phone, she doesn’t tell us what God says. She just speaks herself. But I laugh because, when she answers, my brain solves the equation to figure out God’s line. In that reveal lies the joke. Ellen also pauses while God’s speaking, these silences essentially becoming the set up, and I laugh just in the quiet anticipation. It’s so cleverly performed and written, and one of the reasons Johnny Carson gave her the rare opportunity to chat on the couch with him on TV right afterward. (See also: “Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue” bit from The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart.)
I don’t know where Ellen Degeneres ended up, but I hope she’s still in comedy and doing well.
Day 14: Bill Burr
Each day this month I’m sharing some comedy sets I find hilarious and talking about why. Today’s is a 2012 Bill Burr set from the Night of Too Many Stars fundraiser. Here’s some of the reasons it continues to stick out in my mind:
• ANALOGOUS LANGUAGE. I laugh when comics are able to connect seemingly disparate ideas. (For an earlier example, see May 7’s set: Aparna Nancherla.) Burr does this without explicitly stating comparisons (“blank is like blank”); he instead threads it into his set, using terms from sports (“game, set, and match”), economics (“bubble going to burst”), and biology (“species natural predator”) so that, when we do make the connection he’s made with his language, we revel.
• SPECIFIC DESCRIPTIONS. Throughout the set, Burr chooses very specific images that heighten my laughs. He doesn’t just tell failed plumbers to commit suicide; he tells them to put wrenches in their pockets and walk into the ocean. It’s not just a big boat; it’s a boat that has a pool with fat people going in. And Steve Jobs isn’t just pretentious; he’s “eating some pretentious fruit, like a pear.” I laughed so hard at that line. It’s so specific and the vivid portrayal afterward (munching, tossing, wiping his mouth on his sleeve) got me rolling.
• THE GOLDEN CALF. When a comic takes on our idols, I’m giddy. You’re not supposed to question what we revere, but Burr’s self-deprecating jokes in the beginning of the set (saying he’s not better than clowns, acknowledging he doesn’t understand boats) have endeared him to me so that I’m open to listening by the time he gets to Steve Jobs. What follows are some hilarious scenes (in the vein of Day 12’s Chappelle set) that help him take on this golden calf. It’s particularly hard to question our adoration of powerful people in this setting - a charity show full of rich, stuffy, New York elites - but, like a jester poke fun of the king in court, it’s thrilling to watch and makes this Burr set all the more enjoyable.
Hope you liked it, and for more Bill Burr, follow on IG (@wilfredburr) and check out his numerous Netflix specials.
Day 13: Jim Gaffigan
I’ve been sharing some stand up comedy I really like every day this month. Today’s set contains some of the earliest stand up bits I remember laughing out loud to. Here’s Jim Gaffigan in 2000 and some reasons I think it’s a great set:
• THE WORD ECONOMY. If you look at Jim’s punchlines, the sentences are all short. For example, after he says, “I gotta go to the post office,” he serves up four separate punchlines, and none of those sentences are more than 8 words. By taking the shortest route to the laugh, he can keep me laughing and give me more opportunities to do so.
• THE TAGS. Any time spent establishing a new premise is time I’m spent not laughing. So why I laugh so much in this short set is that, once Jim gives us a premise, he mines so many jokes out of it. He gets me to crack up when he delivers the line about never giving the neighbor the letter, but then adds three more lines (“tags”) to the joke that all get laughs. Coupled with his Word Economy, these tags create a blisteringly tight set.
• THE OBSERVATIONS. So many of Jim’s bits in this set (e.g., sleep, mail, one thing to do) start off with “You ever...” followed by some observation. He’ll notice a general trait (laziness), but give me a specific, self-deprecating, example (not finishing a newspaper article) that I can relate to. I end up laughing at him and myself. And the observations are so on point that, even almost two decades later, this set still feels fresh.
Hope you liked it. His 2000 Comedy Central half hour special contains these and other great jokes. For more Jim Gaffigan, check out his numerous other specials and follow @jimgaffigan.
Day 12: Russell Peters
Every day in May, I’ve been sharing stand up I really like. This weekend, I’m talking about 2 classic bits, and today’s literally launched a global career. Here’s “Somebody Gonna Get A Hurt Real Bad” from Russell Peters and a few of the reasons why I still laugh when I watch it:
• THE MISDIRECTS. When comics lead me to anticipate one outcome, only to reveal another, I’m tickled. Russell takes it to another level by embedding his misdirects into dialogue. Take the conversation between Brad and his mom. Neither Brad’s furious reaction nor his mom’s passive response is expected, and both are hilarious. In the final conversation, when Russell threatens to call Children’s Aid, what’s the expected outcome? His dad will halt. What’s the actual conclusion? His dad offers Russell the phone and threatens to beat him while Children’s Aid comes. Once again, Russell’s dialogue subverts my expectations and, in doing so, gets giant laughs.
• THE CHARACTERS. Russell plays 4 characters in this set: an angry white boy, a lax white mom, a naive Indian son, and a harsh Indian father. Not only does he expertly inhabit these roles with voices, faces, and gestures, he gives each person a unique characteristic (angry, lax, naive, harsh) that he can play up for comedic effect. As a result, when the characters collide (like the naive son’s smile turning into the harsh father’s glare), the contrast gives me even more reason to laugh. When he then layers these characters with dialogue full of well-constructed misdirect jokes, he’s got the makings of a classic.
• THE TAGLINE. The phrase “Somebody Gonna Get A Hurt Real Bad” is inherently funny, but I think it became a tagline because Russell used techniques to give it tremendous comedic power. He repeats it multiple times, always using the same unique facial expression and gesture. During the set itself, he also breaks down why he hated the phrase, and in the process, gets us very familiar with it. In the final flourish, Russell employs the phrase as an unexpected callback. This coda gets the biggest pop and elevates just a funny phrase into one I’ll always associate with strong laughter.
For more, follow @russellpeters.