On the Anatomy of a Joke and Storytelling
What would you say is the most important aspect of telling a joke?
In my opinion, the most important factor in the telling of a joke is a certain amount of self-awareness, a sort of meta-perspective that helps drive home the point of the joke… without calling too much attention to itself.
To put it another way, the way in which a joke recognizes itself as absurd, but asks the audience to play along for the promise of a laugh.
Let’s take an example from, let’s say, this bit from Monty Python’s Flying Circus:
From the get-go, the entire subject of the skit is completely ridiculous. Who in their right mind would pay money to have an argument with a person they’ve never met, and what kind of employer would pay employees to have arguments with their customers in such a formal setting?
And yet the audience is willing to accept this foundation, a complete suspension of disbelief. Why?
Because what’s more important than the foundation, is the execution of the joke. The joke unravels if the setup of the joke fails to justify itself in its execution. In the case of the above skit, much of the humor arises from the
Allow me to share a joke that I completely made up today:
A falco, an eagle, and a robin are sitting on a branch of a tree when they see a cat chasing a rabbit into a nearby bush. A short scuffle ensues followed by silence.
The falcon says to the other two birds "watch this, I'm gonna go steal that rabbit from that cat. I'm the fastest bird in the forest, he won't see me coming!", and he flies off into the bush.
A short scuffle ensues, and the falcon comes racing back to the branch feathers missing, scratches on his beak.
The eagle laughs and says "what, you weren't fast enough? Watch this, I'LL go steal that rabbit from that cat. I'm the strongest and largest bird in the forest, he won't be able to scratch me up!"
So the eagle flies down into the bush. Another short scuffle ensues, and the eagle comes back in much the same condition as the falcon.
Finally, the robin (not very bright) says "let me go talk to him, maybe he'll share the rabbit with us if we just ask him."
The falcon and the eagle try to stop the robin, but before they could protest, the robin had already flew down into the bush.
Seconds passed, then minutes, and the robin still hadn't returned.
The falcon asked the eagle "you think the cat got him?"
All of a sudden, the robin comes flying back with a rabbits foot in his talon! The other birds are flabbergasted! The robin doesn't even have a scratch on him!
So the eagles asks the robin "what happened? How'd you get that rabbits foot??"
And the robin explains: "Well, the cat was actually really nice! He gave me this foot, under one condition."
The eagle and the falcon looked at each other, flabberghasted.
The falcon asked "What condition?"
The robin says "He REALLY wanted to meet you two!"