Chapter 47 comedian on a deck chair

A few months later, our joke lab has received more than 25,000 jokes and about 1 million ratings, and has been frequently exposed in the media around the world.That's when I was approached by Academy Award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker John Zereski, asking if I'd help out with a documentary about The Laugh Lab and a worldwide review of humor. Explore.It certainly seemed like a good idea to me, so we quickly embarked on a global joke quest to see what makes people around the world laugh, giggle, or stop laughing. As part of the film, John invited me to Los Angeles to do some field testing of some of the higher-scoring jokes.I scoured existing databases and identified two types of jokes as test subjects: jokes that the British find particularly funny and jokes that Americans find particularly funny. In June 2002, at a comedy club called the Igloo in Pasadena, California, I stood on the side of the stage and watched Debbie Guderrez, a beautiful young hostess, on the stage Explain to the audience what is going to happen next.She gave everyone a brief introduction to the Joke Lab project, and then said that I will come on stage and tell you some jokes. The experiment proved that the British people find these jokes particularly funny. Debbie said that she will also tell some Americans think the funniest jokes joke.A few minutes later, I walked onto the stage.It was another surreal moment.Debbie starts off with a classic joke:

A woman says to a male pharmacist: "Do you have Viagra here?" The pharmacist said, "Yes." The woman asked again: "Can I get it at the counter?" The pharmacist replied: "I just need to take two pills first." Why, can you get an erection right here at the counter?) Debbie screwed up the gag so the joke didn't have the desired effect and there was almost no laughing.It's up to me.I decided to start with a doctor-related joke that is arguably popular among Brits who visit the Joke Lab: A man goes to the doctor for a test.After the examination, he asked the doctor how long he had to live.

The doctor replied, "Ten." The man looked like he was racing the water, and he asked again: "Ten what? Ten years? Ten months? Or ten weeks?" The doctor replied: "Nine, eight, seven..." As a result, the scene was still silent. I dare say that if a needle fell on the ground at this time, I would definitely hear it.Or if a duck falls on the ground, if that sounds funnier.The next few jokes failed to impress the audience, and finally Debbie told a joke that didn't exist, and the scene burst into laughter: "Two gays and a midget walked into a bar..."

If you look at the Joke Lab data alone, about a third of the audience should find our jokes funny.However, the results of field tests show that this ratio is close to zero.So, what went wrong? In fact, it's a typical "radish greens, each has his own love".The people who voted for our experiment were all kinds of people, however, the comedy club audience was a unique group that preferred jokes that were bold, offensive, insulting, or offensive.In the world of comedy, there is no such thing as a "magic bullet," a joke that everyone finds hilarious.Ultimately, it's a matter of matching jokes and people, and at the Igloo we apparently got the subjects all wrong.This argument also resurfaced at the end of the experiment, when we announced the funniest jokes.

While it's true that standing on stage at "The Igloo" isn't much fun, it's far more fun standing backstage waiting for the moment with the other performers.If you don't take into account the double meaning of the word "funny", I would say that professional comedians are a very funny bunch.They have chosen a way of making a living that is not easy and is under enormous pressure.Every night, they have to go on stage and do their best to make a group of strangers laugh.No matter how they feel inside, no matter what happens in life, they have to appear in front of the audience in a funny and funny image.Because of this, a small group of psychologists has become interested in analyzing the psychology of professional comedians.

The famous Hollywood director Woody Allen once said: "Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I have no fun at all." People will have a stereotype of "The Sad Clown", so the truth of this view How much sex? Well-known examples include British comedian Spike Milligan (who suffered a lifetime of manic-depressive disorder) and American comedians Lenny Bruce and John Bay Rousey (both are said to have died by suicide). In 1975, American psychiatrist Samuel Jenners published a seminal paper analyzing the psychology of comedians.Eager to explore the reality of the popular stereotype of the sad clown, Janus conducted interviews with 55 of the most famous professional comedians to examine their lives.Jenners found some of the biggest names in comedy, and they only worked with people who made six figures or more and had national acclaim.The results of the study showed that the vast majority of these people had high IQs (several people even reached the level of "genius"), 80% of them had seen a psychologist in their lives, and almost all of them were particularly worried about the psychological problems surrounding them. Their star halo will slowly dim.These findings lead Jenners to her own conclusion: "There are a few of them who are able to enjoy their lives and reap the fruitful rewards that fame and good fortune bring to them, but they are a very small minority." Jenner Smith's study also addressed the issue of working with brilliant but anxious professional comedians.Despite their high IQs, says Janners, "it's not about getting them to react, it's about consistently reassuring them that they're anxious and reassuring them that they're doing really well." Janus also noted that when asked about their experience seeking help from a therapist, several participants said the therapist told them to "get on the recliner and tell me everything you know." Just say, “It feels like a therapist doing comedy in Philadelphia.”