• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Comedy doesn't work if you're literal-minded, says John Cleese

cormack12

Gold Member
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c90z18q2egpo

But he said comedy writing is generally more difficult because of viewers who "don't understand metaphor, irony, or comic exaggeration".

But he added that writers are also "up against" people who interpret jokes literally, sometimes not allowing for a scene's tone or set-up.

"So whenever you're doing comedy, you're up against the literal-minded. And the literal-minded don't understand irony, so that means if you take them seriously, you get rid of a lot of comedy, because the literal-minded don't understand metaphor, irony, comic exaggeration.

"And the result is, if you listen to them, these are people who are not, so far as understanding what human beings are saying and doing, they're not playing with a full deck.

"Literal-minded people can only have one interpretation of what's being said. People who are not literal-minded can see there are different interpretations depending on different contexts."


I feeling jokes are so obvious, that these people choose to interpret them literally in most case so they can be outraged.
 
Be brilliant if he could make a joke these days, instead of endlessly whining why he apparently can't. Sad to see him like this really, the old Cleese and Python would be taking the piss mercilessly and making us laugh like fuck at the same time. I guess a few purple haired morons taking against him is far more powerful than the combined Christian religions around the Life of Brian.
 

Mistake

Member
Slapstick is still comedy, and that's very direct. Sounds like he's coming up with excuses instead of putting his balls on the table
 

winjer

Gold Member
monty python and the holy grail insult GIF
 

StueyDuck

Member
Be brilliant if he could make a joke these days, instead of endlessly whining why he apparently can't. Sad to see him like this really, the old Cleese and Python would be taking the piss mercilessly and making us laugh like fuck at the same time. I guess a few purple haired morons taking against him is far more powerful than the combined Christian religions around the Life of Brian.
The dude is in his 80s, I think he's just at the point where he's old and doesn't care. Making actual funny and decent comedy is hard work, I imagine he doesn't have it in him anymore.

There's a Monty python documentary somewhere that's really interesting but I remember most of them were basically operating at 11 most of the time.

Let the man be old and grumble 🤣 that's the best part about being old.
 

Trilobit

Member
My former boss had a real hard time grasping irony. In my family and with my relatives we use irony baked into all conversations. Not sarcasm which I really don't like. So it was a somewhat hard time when she got hired, but in the end I made efforts to joke less and she made efforts to try to understand irony better.

But I still have a hard time understanding how non-autistic adults are not able to grasp irony. I guess if you don't grow up with it, it's like a foreign dialect. I love exaggerations for comedic effect when hanging out with friends, really tickles my funny-bone.
 
Top Bottom