There’s slapstick, parody, satire, screwball, and black comedy. You can sautee it, stirfry it, bake it, and….oh, wrong review. All kinds of comedy exist, but the biggest problem in comedy is the stand-up comedians who constantly milk every clichéd joke, such as the one where an airplane should be made out of black box material. Or there’s that whole to-do with barely any sex after marriage. What is there to do about these ax-murderers of laughs, and even more so, how do we control the people that still laugh at jokes that are as dead as the cows hanging in butcher shops?
Shock research is one way to go, according to “Comedy: The Other Black Gold”, which explains that comedy is a precious resource, and there are still gold nuggets that have not been mined. Brian Santiago explains that scientists of theoretical comedy have discovered that there are 500,000 comedic premises in existence, and 450,000 have already been used. Where are the other 50,000? It’s up to comedians to find out and at the New Laugh Institute, scientists are working to find what is funny and original today, and where it can be found.
One thing’s for sure. Alicia Dattner, who is also a stand-up comedian, has come up with an original, this being a parody of a public service announcement. Forget “Save the Whales” for now. Those laughs need to be found fast, and this is a good start toward that. There’s nothing worse than an unoriginal bit of comedy that people still laugh at because there’s nothing else out there that’s funnier. There probably is, and that’s why there are filmmakers, writers, stand-up comedians, and other humorous types hard at work to bring those original skits and routines to the eyes of a public in need of better comedy.
