[ExI] quote of the day

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of ...

>>... a sense of humor...

>...You have me pegged!

_______________________________________________


Comedy seldom ages gracefully.

Consider the 1983 standup routine by Eddie Murphy, Delirious.  My friends
and I had just gotten out of college where we were out of contact with the
real world for four years.  We had no idea what was socially acceptable and
what was not.  

OK, big party, many of the attendees church people.  Someone put that on a
new invention we had only heard about: video tape.  Murphy went into being
Murphy.  About a third of the group was shrieking with laughter.  Many were
very uncomfortable and left.  I wondered at the time how this comedy would
age, how we would view it 30 years down the road.  Now we know: very clearly
that routine wouldn't fly today.

Good comedy must have a hook: it must somehow surprise and shock.  That gets
harder and harder to do.  Many stand-up comedians have given up the college
circuit: the students have become far too sensitive to entertain.  The ocean
cruise crowd is far easier to entertain now, the over-60s.  We have already
been shocked and grown accustomed to it.  We are pre-desensitized by guys
like Eddie Murphy.

spike