Detroit Lions team president, Tom Lewand's been arrested for drunk driving. They say he [has] been drinking pretty heavily. But then again, he's the president of the Lions. Can you blame the man? (laughter and applause)
Now that there's almost a score of these, do you think the fault is in choosing the wrong topics to craft jokes around, or in poorly crafting the jokes?
daniel, that's a really good question. I'd be interested in 3rdGuyDux's thoughts on this. Why are Leno's jokes so consistently sub-par? This show certainly has no shortage of money to pay for top notch writers. An interesting defense for Leno might be that they've got to write a LOT of material, so it can't all be A+ stuff, but is that true? I wonder if Leno thinks it's all A+ stuff. The 'clapter' is also fascinating. Does the audience applause simply because Leno attempted a joke? Having been in the Daily Show audience, I know that the audience is asked to exaggerate their response (easier and more natural feeling than you might guess, oddly), but we only did the 'clapter' thing when Stubeef earned it. I'd also be interested in a post about clapter. When did this emerge in stand-up? Was it around in Bob Hope's day?
Do you think clapter (for a good two minutes I thought you meant clap-prompter) grew with more subtle stand-up? It seems hard to get guffaws from low key one-liners like Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg. Maybe audiences started clapping to let the performer know they liked the joke, even though it only physically registered as a chuckle or smirk. Mentioning Bob Hope does bring to mind his USO military audiences. I can see them relaxing/escaping with clapter.
I'm also curious how Leno's Vegas and other actual stand-up is compared to his monologues.
Now that there's almost a score of these, do you think the fault is in choosing the wrong topics to craft jokes around, or in poorly crafting the jokes?
ReplyDeletedaniel, that's a really good question. I'd be interested in 3rdGuyDux's thoughts on this. Why are Leno's jokes so consistently sub-par? This show certainly has no shortage of money to pay for top notch writers. An interesting defense for Leno might be that they've got to write a LOT of material, so it can't all be A+ stuff, but is that true? I wonder if Leno thinks it's all A+ stuff. The 'clapter' is also fascinating. Does the audience applause simply because Leno attempted a joke? Having been in the Daily Show audience, I know that the audience is asked to exaggerate their response (easier and more natural feeling than you might guess, oddly), but we only did the 'clapter' thing when Stubeef earned it. I'd also be interested in a post about clapter. When did this emerge in stand-up? Was it around in Bob Hope's day?
ReplyDeleteDo you think clapter (for a good two minutes I thought you meant clap-prompter) grew with more subtle stand-up? It seems hard to get guffaws from low key one-liners like Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg. Maybe audiences started clapping to let the performer know they liked the joke, even though it only physically registered as a chuckle or smirk. Mentioning Bob Hope does bring to mind his USO military audiences. I can see them relaxing/escaping with clapter.
ReplyDeleteI'm also curious how Leno's Vegas and other actual stand-up is compared to his monologues.