Comedy… What’s Funny, What’s Not and Why?

Comedy… What’s funny and what’s not?

Comedy is not a pretty business. In fact, comedy is based on tragedy, and tragedy is pain evolved. Comedy is based on making fun of people. Comedians who are successful are either self-deprecating, making them more likable, or else they are biting satirists making fun of those around them.

There is not a comedic play or movie or monologue out there that does not fall into one of those two categories — self-deprecating or biting satire. Self-deprecating humor is easier for many people to take because it’s easier for them to accept comedy where the comedian makes fun of themselves. The audiences don’t see the self-pain as clearly as they see comedy where other people are made fun of. People who like comedy that pokes fun at other people is more apparently mean-spirited because it’s a little easier to see for most people. The truth is that both types of comedy are cruel — one at the comedian’s own expense, and one at the expense of others.

Comedy based on large, black women is funny to audiences who know large, black women. It wouldn’t play in Greenwich, Connecticut because it wouldn’t be funny there, because it doesn’t hit the cultural reference points that are there. Comedy by the late Spalding Grey, is about wasp culture, and wouldn’t play in certain areas of Detroit, the way it would play in Greenwich Connecticut. Jewish comedy is funnier in the Catskills than it is in the heartland of America.