Comedy #1

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Comedy is relative to the time as well as to the beholder. This article states that early forms of stand-up comedy were performed by court jesters in medieval times. It also suggests that there were elements of stand-up in Shakespearean plays and refers to Mark Twain as a humorist. This goes to show that what I view as funny many other people will not and vice versa. Will I'm sure these three early forms of stand-up did serve to provide entertainment for people at the time, they wouldn't most likely have such an effect on me. The image of a court jester, to me, is an idiot in a silly hat with bells on it, not someone with immense comedic value. While Shakespeare and Twain are both influential and interesting writers, both strike me as much more dense than funny. I love stand-up comedy and I love to laugh, but what makes me laugh is I guess different from what made people laugh more than 100 years ago.

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One of my favorite things about Seinfeld is that it is somewhat of a paradox. Jerry is a stand-up comic in real life, and stars in the show as a stand-up comic. The show is a "show about nothing" as is the show he and George pitch to NBC as part of the show. What made Seinfeld so great is that it wasn't really about anything. It was a group of four friends who get into weird social confrontations and deal with them/talk about them in funny ways. Whether Kramer dates a girl who talks quietly or Jerry steals a marble rye or Elaine gets banned from a soup shop, the absurdity of their situations is what makes for such great comedy. Everything about Seinfeld is so simple and relatable that it's very difficult to not like. We as an audience love their characters but eventually realize they're not good people. The series ends, fittingly, with the gang in jail for being innocent bystanders to a crime, while for 9 seasons they stood by and cracked jokes about our world.

Car Speech Number 2

Car Speech 1