Damaged Male Comedy

“I had an inkling that standup had some boyzone problems but it wasn’t until I started plumbing the depths of PNW open mics that the full scope of the problem came into focus, the extent to which the Damaged Male dominated this artform. I would warrant that any of you could go to any open mic in any club in any city in the country and see the following act: A white guy in a hoodie who complains for his entire set, beginning with and often returning to women. … There’s this mistaken notion out there about standup that it can an effective set can just be a stream of bile and horror and you either get it or you don’t. Somewhere along the line the idea that this was entertainment got a little muddied. Ancient comedies were less stories full of yuks and more stories about communities creating themselves or repairing themselves. That is to say, the core purpose of comedy is to bring people together. That’s why it’s so important that jokes be relatable, that they make the singular experience universal and help us better understand one another through a conduit of joy and catharsis. You’re not embracing the full power of comedy if you’re using it for naught to cut people down. And even if you don’t buy all my hippy bullshit, the fact still remains that comedy that leaves a full half of the population reluctant to come to your shows is straight up bad for business and ought to be avoided on a purely bloodless profit-motive level.”

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