The Appeal of Stand Up for Aspiring Comedians

While laughter is most frequently a casual activity amongst friends, for some it is a means of achieving greatness. A lucky group of people are able to turn their humor into a successful career, simply making people laugh for a living. However the number of people at the top is very small, one can list only a few household comedians and even fewer stand-up comics. Despite little room for fame in stand-up comedy, there still exists stiff competition fighting for this success, enough so to prompt shows like “Last Comic Standing.” Before discussing stand-up comedy in more specific detail in later posts, in this example, I would like to describe the reasons for why there is so much competition to get into comedy, not necessarily because of the fame it affords, but due to the positive personal effects of making people laugh.

                Throwing together a few concise words into what can be considered a witty response is one of the most rewarding feats one can achieve in a social environment. The satisfaction received from making a statement that thrusts one’s peers into a fit of laughter provides an almost charitable sense of accomplishment after providing your friends with a reason to laugh and a temporary sense of happiness and relief. Furthermore after constructing a funny joke there is not only the joy of making others laugh that follows, but also a sincere sense of pride for realizing that you have created a product, in this situation being the joke, which is accepted by a large community and therefore are accomplished in a field that is valued within society.  In fact, a couple weeks ago at Yale’s Fall Show, the comedian Michael Ian Black described how in a particular situation, he responded to a woman’s question with what he considered to be an extremely funny comment and despite the woman not laughing at his joke, Black gave himself a theoretical “pat on the back” for what he considered to be a significant accomplishment.

                As a result, we can see that while humor can for some be a means for reaching a high level of success or fame, it is actually much more than that. Being a comedian can be one of the most rewarding careers, experiencing a feeling of benevolence for making others laugh, as well as a sense of pride for the quality of jokes you have created. Therefore, it is no wonder that so many which to enter this field and it is such a competitive occupation.