Comedy Structuralism: i.e. Stealing Jokes

Stealing jokes isn't as cut and dry as we sometimes make it out to be. A lot of people joke about giving their kid a crazy name. Everyone knows how horrible an itchy butthole is. And often the only way we talk about it is to fit it into a story that makes us laugh.

My recent post about Dana Gould's show left out some very relevant observations that the comic's comic made a while back, specifically about the parallels between Gould's and Louis C.K.'s act.

I couldn't help but begin making instant comparisons (Boston-area heritage? check! In their 40s? check! No game with the ladies? check! Problems interacting with two young daughters? check!). So I turned off my TV and waited a bit to give Gould a fairer shake. After all, the two men may have more than a few things in common, but they approach their lives and their comedy differently.

Yep, there are lot of very common pieces in both acts. But remember, the pieces are very common. A good comedian can find something new to notice. But even the best will say something that we've thought about. And will complain about something that we too already hate. And will admit something we're all ashamed of. Comedy is part seeing something different, and part seeing something differently.

Who hasn't wondered what really happens when you're under for a root canal. Jerry wondered about it when he went to see Tim Whatley and Sheryl the hot hygienist. And Louie has his suspicions too.



The image of a patient coming up from the gas, and getting a glimpse of the dentist buttoning and zipping up, is familiar.

But they're different jokes. Sure, they're very similar, but you can't deny that the hallucination and the banana and Stephen Root's amazing delivery make this a very different experience.

Cranston creates a slick, confident, unnerved swinger; tag-teaming with his cooperating colleague's hygienist. It's a joke about 'Welcome to our club.'

Root gives us a soothing, tender, 'relax-I-won't-hurt-you' dentist, hiding from everyone. Showing shame. It's a joke about pedophilia.

My belief that Louis C.K. knew about and probably remembered the Seinfeld scene, is not an accusation. It's the opposite. It's a defense of him as a comic who knows and respects and references other comedians. Louie is about a comic living in New York. The show has almost no traditional plot, and it's structured around a stand-up act that is tangentially, thematically related to the action. He's using Seinfeld's structure very differently. And the irreverence that Seinfeld introduced with his show, C.K. has taken further. Knowingly.

C.K. doesn't need this defense, because he's trusted, and I haven't heard anyone accuse him. But there are comedians who are accused too easily. And a lot of fans, eager to show how much they know about their favourite comics, try to prove some worth by pointing and barking at every similarity like a terrier at a doorbell. Go do a word-search if that's how you want to spend your time.

Or write a post like I just did.