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Comment by clucas | Hacker News Reader

Yes, the article mistakes punchlines for comedy. Watch some of Norm MacDonald's stuff on Conan (troubled moth, Jacques de Gatineaux, drunk dart thrower, Andy the Swedish-German)... sure, the punchlines fit the model in the article, but the real humor comes from his delivery and the weird worlds he creates leading up to the punchlines.

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> troubled moth

This is worth googling for anybody who’s not urgently meant to be doing something for the next ten minutes. Also on Conan, for anyone looking for an amazing example of humour without a punchline is “conan nathan fielder susan”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJN9mBRX3uo

That is comedy gold

I’m a big fan of his dirty Johnny joke on stern, https://youtu.be/4gshCmZVAV8

Same with Phil Hartman and Matt Berry, they can make the most boring lines instantly funny through sheer power of charisma and vocal inflections.

With all of these, there's an element of absurdity. It's not about the world Norm is creating, it's the fact that the words aren't the joke, the joke is on you. The joke is that it's a long, boring story to set up a shitty punchline. You wait, and wait, and wait for the catharsis, but it never comes from the joke itself, it comes only a beat or two after when you realize what just happened.

Matt Berry gets mileage out of responding to everything with a sort of bombastic over-seriousness. He is a character that does nothing small.

Observational comedy is the pointing out of absurdity in everyday life.

You and he were buddies, weren't you?

I'm a one track lover...

“Some say funny things.

Others say things funny.”

Something like that.

Thank g-d for the hatchery.

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