The Alpha Comedian - Footnotes
1. Maybe some comedians are attached to the idea that if comedy is all about status, then in a way that makes them rebels against the status quo. It doesn't matter if status is being challenged, changed, or merely commented on, so long as a comedian is exposing it, then the comedian might feel that they are participating in an overall push toward social justice. Everyone likes to think of themselves as a rebel, don't they? I can't presume the motivations of others, though, so I'm just throwing this out there. If you're a comedian who is into this idea, then maybe you can take comfort in the fact that nothing is stopping you from continuing to be a rebel even if comedy isn't based on status. back
2. Keith Johnstone wrote the books Impro and Impro For Storytellers , is the inventor of Theatresports , and is, as far as I'm concerned, the most insightful teacher of improvisation techniques and principles. Yes, even more so than Del Close or Viola Spolin . If you're not an improv geek like I am, and have no idea of who these people are, don't sweat it. They're all influential teachers of improv, and improvisers generally tend to regard at least one of the three as being the originator of "true" or "good" improv, depending in their tastes and where they learnt it. back
3. See: the "Constitutional Peasants" scene in Monty Python's movie The Holy Grail . back
4. The usefulness of pockets, support when playing sports, protection from the elements, blah, blah, blah... back
5. And please don't forget that earlier in this chapter we've already separated out bullying, flirting, and other deliberate manipulations of humour. back
6. Some variants of status are heavily linked to cultural theories, because people's status is often informed by our cultural norms. However, we'll look at culture in the next section, and here we want to focus purely on status. For the moment we'll take it as axiomatic that while cultures differ in who and how they show it, there are still hierarchies of status that people can exploit for comedy. back
7. My favourite word and feeling. It means "the satisfaction that comes with seeing others suffer". back
8. One of my favourite quotes on comedy comes from Groucho Marx . "An amateur thinks it's really funny if you dress a man up as an old lady, put him in a wheelchair, and give the wheelchair a push that sends it spinning down a slope toward a stone wall. For a pro, it's got to be a real old lady." back
9. "What's the definition of a Freudian slip? It's when someone says one thing but means their mother." Hah! Bow before my higher status you lowly receiver of my puns! back
10. I'm not just hypothesizing to make straw men advocates of status theories. This exact explanation was offered by Steven Pinker in his book How The Mind Works . back
11. I know you don't need to be told that I'm referring to William of Ockham , who proposed that the idea that requires the least number of assumptions is more likely to be true. This often helpful rule of thumb is known as "Occam's Razor". Also, for some reason, people seem to like to spell his name different ways. back