Stand-up Comedy: A Teachable Moment

My favorite thing about the comment section are the Karens.

They are the most delicious combination of self-importance, and delusion.

When I posted this video as a straight-into-the-camera take the other week, several of them showed up to loudly voice their displeasure.

“You’re a horrible father!” one woman with severe daddy issues repeatedly proclaimed.

Now, I understand full-well the difference between saying something into a phone in my living room, and into a microphone on stage where people have gathered to hear jokes.

I learned that lesson a couple years back when “canned pumpkin guy” went viral.

If you’re not familiar, long story short: I posted a video, pretending to rant about marriage.

The first week it was out, it got 200,000 views, and everyone got that it was a joke. Then, the two dumbest influencers on the planet—a Canadian known as “professor fart sniffer,” and a relationship guru who is (ironically) perpetually single—took it as real, and told their so-dumb-they’re-influenced-by-internet-idiots followers to hate me, which they did.

And they pushed the video to millions of views.

It was glorious.

So many dumb people angry over a lie.

I loved it.

Made me giggle with joy, but also a little sad.

They reminded me of flat-earthers, or Trumpers. They want to be angry, and right, in the face of reality and logic.

Anyway, much like that story, I knew this would work on stage; I knew that people who go out to see live comedy are much better people than those who sit and type angry comments online.

Now, not all jokes are for all people.

Everyone knows that.

But, that said, some people just aren’t into jokes.

When they come out to play, their lack of a sense of humor is the thing that shines brightest about them.

Which means after telling this story in my living room, I was aching to take it to the stage, because I knew it would work.

And it did.

Because, to repeat myself: people who leave their homes in search of a good time (like a comedy show) are better people than shut-ins who like to whine online.

That’s just a plain fact.