The idea that humor is objective and what makes people laugh, or what makes something or somebody "funny," has been a debate almost as long as humor itself. But The fact is, there are people that have been successful with great careers who some would argue meet certain features that in fact connect with and audience and elicits enjoyment.
In Jeannine Schwarz Dissertation on stand up comedians, she focuses on established comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Stephen Write. In his paper he breaks it down by explaining the difference between stand up comedy with such things as regular joke telling, different techniques such as satire, ridicule, and what role the audience plays in the process.
While she makes many good points on the subject he addresses the medium of comedians in a live act on a stage., I would like to see how a comedian uses the moves when he has the benefits from a taped show with the use of visual aides, other comedians to play off of, and the benefit of current events at their disposal.
Jon Stewart has successfully hosted the Daily Show a satire news program/talk show comedy central since 1999. Stewart himself being a former successful stand up comic, uses all the moves that the two comedians do but he, but the is able to adapt them for not only making the people who are live in audience laugh, but also the people at home as well.
This paper will examine how he adapts the conventions of standup comedy into a different medium and how it has made him successful.
C.Hyperbole
Standup comics often use Hyperbole or caricatures to make a simple joke, or something thats not even a joke, funnier. But as noted in the Lit review, its a fine line to take because you have to make sure the audience has a frame of reference for.
In the clip from Americas Got Talent and impressionist does impressions of many famous people with an air of over exaggeration. Though he gets laughs he is walking the fine line of alienating his audience by quoting lines from the movies of some of the actors he is impersonating which many in the audience could not be familiar with.
On TDS, Jon Stewart has a system in place where before he does a caricature or an imitation, he can show the audience not only the person he is imitating, but a particular clip in which he can really exaggerate the finer points of.
As you can see in the clip, after we cut back to Jon Stewart, he immediately elicits laughs from the crowd without saying a word. By mimicking the appearance of the Senator by playing off the clip he just presented to the crowd, it allows him to be more free with Hyperbole, and do it more safely then he would if he was on a stage with no context for the audience to relate to.
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