Be Funny or Die
Be Funny or Die: How Comedy Works and Why It Matters
By: Joel Morris
“Unlike drama or ballet or sculpture, you know when you’ve made comedy: it’s when people laugh.”
I guess this book should die because it really wasn’t very funny.
That sounds harsh and I’ll be up front that I don’t think I was the target audience for this book. It wasn’t quite the type of book I was expecting going into it.
I’m a pretty hilarious person so the idea that I could become even funnier if I knew all the principles of comedy is what drew me to this book. While there were some decent things to learn here, it turns out I really don’t know much about comedy or at least in the pop culture world because there were very few references that I recognized. I don’t know if it was because they were British things or if I’m just so illiterate of the comedic world— which is actually very possible.
The Office and Nate Bargatze and some random SNL skits are probably the big rocks of my comedic knowledge.
And if that tells you— I probably shouldn’t care what this woman says about this book— you may very well be correct.
I’m not out to write a really good comedy script or do stand-up. I just wanted to become a better storyteller or joke-deliverer. However, my husband is tinkering with writing some sort of funny animated show and so what I did highlight in this book was mostly things that I thought may be helpful to him as he’s thinking through that.
This book felt very, very long (it’s 57 chapters; 364 pages). I think it would have been more effective if it was shorter. Sooooo much of it felt repetitive. We get it. Evolution and comedy make total sense (nope…) and nobody laughs if they’re in danger and comedy is about defining groups and making people feel safe and you need to confound them. But we don’t need like ten chapters of each thing.
Maybe it’s because I read it so sporadically and if I had read bigger chunks at a time it would have felt like it flowed better. The science of comedy and the evolutionary exploration was towards the beginning of the book and I was pretty ready to be done with that so I skimmed a large portion of the book. And then I skipped over probably the 60-80% section so I have no idea what was in there. I liked the last section better where it talked about characters.
I think I probably could have skipped the first 175 pages in general and been fine.
If you’re wondering, the book is split into 6 parts: Comedy is Human; Comedy is Music; Comedy is Us; Comedy is Character; Comedy is Story; …And the Punchline.
I think it’s interesting how hard evolutionary biologists have to work to make sense of the world. He points out how humans are the only animals that make jokes: “There is, as far as we know, no comedy in the animal kingdom.” And somehow they’re convinced that millions of years of evolving led to people (or whatever they would call them) to be like, let’s start laughing more and being hilarious so our tribe can survive more, I think that would be a good idea.
I’m not here to debate evolution, that’s for an argument for A Biblical Case Against Theistic Evolution, but when I read about people trying to explain certain things by way of evolution, it just makes me stand in more awe of a Creator. It just makes me appreciate and love God more that he created humans with the ability to laugh and the minds to create jokes and comedy, and that he created a way to lighten our spirits and bond with others and that’s really cool.
To give you a better sense of what kinds of things are in this book, here are some quotes. Some of them are pretty good. But just keep in mind, these are within the context of a really long book and you might get a whole chapter talking about just one of these quotes over and over again but just with different words (and some same words):
“[Comedy] can help declare our values, when we want to say who we are, or feel that identity is under threat. It can neutralise threats with absurdity. It can provide relief when we need cheering up. it can help us bond with friends. What makes us laugh is as much part of our identity as what makes us dance, or cry.”
“The feeling of bottled hysteria— the recognition of common values, the hint of transgression, the moment of relief, the warmth of ownership and intimacy, the sharing— is the pure essence of comedy.”
“Every transgressive, dark or shocking comedy is still meant to reassure, by testing the boundaries of our group values. Shock comedy can be a way of ‘othering’ nonmembers of the group whom we wish to test, or drive away, but every offensive joke that horrifies an outsider solidifies the in-group by contrast.”
“We laugh more readily and more often when we are in company, because laughter is intended to be a social act.”
“There is notable statistical bias towards prioritizing humour as a desriable trait in a potential partner by women…”
“Incongruity is expecting one thing and getting another. And that’s how comedy works… Comedy is a game that humans play, which challenges other humans to guess what is coming next.”
“different sorts of jokes, such as puns, seem to light up different parts of your brain, which is a fascinating idea.”
… a summation of the essential elements required to make comedy might be listed simply as 1) Expectation 2) Surprise 3) Relief.”
“Comedy might be seen as the silly relation of the finer storytelling arts, but it gives your brain more extreme mental exercise, faster, than almost anything else. And that is really good for you.”
“What I think comedy has, at its best, is not truth, but clarity. And that’s because it is an art form that relies for its effects on balance, mirroring, symmetry, rhythm, contrast, pace, harmony, juxtaposition, and surprise.”
“Here are your three keys: 1. Construct (Interesting…) 2. Confirm (Of course… as I expected) 3. Confound (Hey!)”
“Character needs to be established quickly, and then we relax, and look for pattern matches.”
“Comedy is always the art of reading the room. Comedy has become a very different beast on social media in recent years, precisely because the difficulties of defining that room.”
“The common features of a joke are that: it plays games of expectation and surprise using our pattern-detecting system, it returns us to a safe state, which we may indicate to others with laughter, and it forms or reasserts a social bond within a group.”
“There’s an old comedy writer’s trick that your ensemble of characters is only ready for use when you know instantly how every one of them would react to the same stimulus.”
“If characters change, or obfuscate their motives from the audience, that’s getting dangerously close to drama.”
“Comedy isn’t meant to make everyone laugh at the same things. It’s meant to divide us, and delight us, to appeal to niche audiences. it’s not mean to bring the world together in harmony to laugh at the ultimate joke that tickles us all equally. It’s meant to gather us in small tribes, under the flag of whatever joke we, and only we, like best.”
Recommendation
If you are in the business of or would like to be in the business of stand-up comedy or writing comedy, you might find this book helpful.
If you want to know how many obscure comedy moments you know about, this might be the perfect test.
If you just want to be the life of the party, you probably don’t have the stamina for this book.
This book is for a very niche audience and I cannot tell you if that’s you. You must look deep inside yourself, all the way into your funny bone, and see if these words are written on its heart.
If that sounds dumb to you, you probably would actually like this book.
Anyway, why am I still rambling on… I don’t have much to contribute to this situation.
[Content Advisory: 5 f-words, 12 s-words]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley— also I thought this was a new release because it was on NetGalley but turns out it was published in March 2024**
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