The best jokes are the ones you explain

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I wonder if all jokes boil down to the same pattern that eventually gets layered and complexified by veteran comedians. A joke is made by creating a frame with an embedded assumption, and then using a punchline to break the frame and reveal an implied truth. There are two layers of subtext, the assumption (the undertone), and the post-punchline tru

Comedians know that when you hear a good joke you usually laugh, but when you hear a *perfect* joke you sometimes just sit in stunned silence for a couple of seconds and then quietly say "that was very funny". This is a thread of me over-analyzing bits that made me do that.

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Jerry Seinfeld started performing stand-up comedy in 1976. Since then and to this day, every day he sits with a yellow legal pad and writes jokes. Given that he’s been honing his craft for 47 years, he was asked, “How do you know a joke is going to work on stage?” Seinfeld said, "You don’t." “You just trust yourself?” the interviewer asked. “No you... See more