The Production of Comedy

• Main Author: Paul Sturges
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2015-10-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015612521

The joke is an essential comic format, and since great volumes of jokes circulate unattributed and without explicit context, the question of their origin requires answering. The current production of jokes is explored in this article, using interviews with stand-up comedians and the current literature of comedy. Comedians reveal a serious devotion to their joke writing, spending working time trawling their own experience and cultural exposure for potentially comic material which they then can structure as jokes. In carrying out this task, they are strongly concerned that the material they create will represent a message that is true to themselves (or “authentic”) rather than merely amusing. They use social media to test material and build their profile with potential audiences. In doing so, they accept the collateral effect that their jokes will quickly enter the communally owned resource of comic content that circulates orally and electronically.