The Language of Comedy

I had a breakthrough moment in comedy some years ago. It doesn’t involve me being funny on stage, because that’s yet to happen. No demonstrable progress has been made on stage.

That said, conceptually, it was a breakthrough. It gave me a huge insight into the journey ahead.

It started when Chris Rock said something along the lines of, “Dave Chappelle is the most fluent human being at the language of comedy.” Though this seems kind of obvious, hearing Chris Rock say “language” was somewhat of an epiphany for me.

Everyone knows timing is important in comedy, as well as tone, but what this helped me understand is that there is a whole learning process.

When you watch a comedian’s comedy special, what you’re watching is someone who has become fluent in the language of comedy and is orally presenting a book they’ve written. A book that can only be written in small segments through experimentation in front of an interactive audience.

Imagine you had to write a book in French, then be able to give an hour-long talk on it in a captivating, commanding way. How long do you think that would take?

I find this to be a good analogy because a lot of people don’t really understand stand-up comedy. The level of agony required to gain mastery of the art form and churn out good material before executing it flawlessly and making it look natural is lost on a casual viewer. When you’re at an open mic night full of beginners, the level of comedy is akin to a Spanish class: “Yo hablo español.” (The H is pronounced out loud here.)

So when you’re watching Ali Wong on a Netflix special, you’re watching someone who has learned a language from scratch and is presenting insightful, humorous information in that language. It’s an incredibly powerful skill.