I have a funny feeling that if Louis CK saw this line-by-line, in-depth analysis of how he supposedly calculates and executes his jokes with meticulous precision, he'd say "oh, wow, I had no idea I was that sophisticated."
No, comedians actually work their ass off for each and every joke. They don't just come up with them, they fine-tune them hours and hours, over and over again.
Gwydda yeah, and that was even touched on in this video with Chris Rock's point about the premise. Honestly OP's comment and all the thumbs up it received lead me to believe a lot of people missed the point of this analysis.
A lot of people who aren't into comedy believe this is over analyzing, that it is more natural than that. That is why Louis C.K. is such a genius, and comics like Chris Rock as well. They have literally said in a talk that they meticulously plan every tiny detail, every time it seems like he is stuttering, every "mistake", those are all planned.
I mean by the time he has a set ready for a special yeah but Louis writes everything on the road, tweaking bits and trying new ones and deliveries on stage, he's talked about it plenty and you can tell there's a mix in leaked sets
His jokes are definitely well scripted but he does leave some small room for improvisation. He'll tell the same joke with slightly different emphases or sometimes add on extra emotion or commentary.
He missed the part about the father ruthlessly crushing his daughters in monopoly. _He’s_ dark. It’s not even Monopoly in the end, is just sets the stage for the father to be the cold, heartless monopoly man, and he’s blaming the game.
@parodyvideos In this video he mentioned that Louis used emphasis, articulation, dramatization and anticipation of the punchline to get the laughs. I think that is spot on, because if you imagine that bit but with those elements omitted it's not funny. I might understand you if it is the derived message he did of the joke was invalid. But if you look at other jokes he did you often see that he likes to sneak in social commentary, such as the Israel Palestine conflict he did on snl, or his reoccurring theme of what is ethically right vs what people actually do.
@parodyvideos This isn't on a macro state such as the presidency, just a vid. Also what about basically every politician or do you live in China? Because here, in America we have many people trying to become president.What I'm saying if offer an example of what you view as superior.
I feel like the type of Carlin fans who go around telling people to watch Carlin because he's real comedy are the type of people that Carlin made fun of.
So anything by Steve Hoffstedter. "See how even though he plants this heckler into the audience, his comeback is still not that funny most of the time" "See how he needs to tell you how funny he is, and post his videos everywhere that he can to get views. This isn't because he's a truly gifted and funny comedian that you WANT to listen to. It's because he a hack comedian that has to be forced down into your ears until your brain malfunctions, almost like a intellectual foie gras."
Honest question, no sarcasm, is it still okay to watch Louis CK? In y'all's opinions is it okay to separate the art from the artist? Is it a moral cop out, or are they legitimately separate issues?
I wouldn't judge anyone that still watches him. Everyone should decide for themselves. But you should think twice if you are still paying for his stuff.
I was thinking about this. Hypothesis: British comedians use fewer "tags" (repeated punchlines for emphasis like Louis does here). I don't know why we do it that way but hearing Louis using so many here felt unusual to me as a Brit.
This comment section really shows what little respect people have for comedians and the efforts they go through to make everything seem natural. It took Louis CK years upon years to get to the point he's at.
Louis ate shit for about 10 yrs... or was it 20? busting his ass as a writer and performer and producer, editor, etc etc to get his current level of success. Anybody who thinks he just got here as a fluke is a chump who's never understood what it takes to succeed
Yeah, it is so hard to write comedy. I've had a few years of theatre courses. And by far the hardest thing we had to do was make and play a comedic scene, as we'd usually have one day to make a scene. It completely fell flat, all the scenes from all the groups. It seems so easy but it really takes some doing.
To add to this, there's a HUGE difference between being a "funny guy" and being a comedian. I've done some stand up on my own just to try it out. I can get my friends to laugh with dumb gags but when it's just you, a microphone, and a light shining in your fucking face? Just a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle different. Especially if they're not your friends. They don't know your sense of humor, they don't know your "in jokes", they don't know you period. You can be the funniest guy in your group of friends but that doesn't mean shit when it comes to getting on stage and winning that audience over. And even if you CAN do that, people like Louis STILL eat shit during a performance. George Carlin ate shit. They all still eat shit on occasion! The same theory can be applied to professional musicians. Yes there are a lot of "good musicians" out there. Can they bring it to the stage and knock it out of the park? No. The answer is no. If you're a performer you have be able to deliver your A game regardless of how bad you feel or unhappy you are on that day. "I could that!" "Did you?" "Well no, but I could. He's just *insert simplified explanation*" That's the difference between him and you then. He did it while you are talking about what you could have done.
It's my dream to be a standup comedian so sometimes, I'll listen to other comedians and dissect a joke. I figured out Louis CK and Doug Stanhope have both written a hilarious 5-minute bit about seeing a bumper sticker in traffic and it blew my mind how someone can write something so long and so funny based on such a single simple thing. It really gave me a new apprrciation for writing jokes
That's a trickier one because Burr does a lot of improv. I saw an interview where he said that his notes for jokes would just be a one word reminder. He is brilliant.
It's trickier because he's unpredictable, he changes his jokes and his delivery of jokes very often, he generally riffs based on a random thought he had. How do you dissect a joke that is different every time?
Milo Hempel he's more coversational and average joe-ish. the comedy in his act comes more from raw emotion and original/controversial view of a subject than from pure technique like louis
To really understand the significance of the shit, you have to look back at the context of the shit. The shit begins not at the toilet, but at the dinner table. All that visceral excitement about the taste of the food, the satisfaction of eating it, leads inevitably to the shit being created, ejected, and discarded. This speaks then of something larger than just the shit; the shit is the natural precursor to our consumerist drive, our insatiable urge to obtain, consume, and throw away.
@@DiegoRuiz1991 Jesus thought for a moment and then replied, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” The people crowded around him were so touched by their own consciences that they departed. ... She replied, “No man, lord.” Jesus then said, “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.
Vegetarian Soylent-Green Yeah, honestly, the thumbs-up system on youtube is one of the worst social media upvoting systems. It's not just because likes... but it's mostly cuz likes...
Bryan A my thoughts exactly. probably would compliment his breakdown, bring up something he missed, and then throw in something about him being a douche.
such over-analyzation,, CK prob just scribbled it down, and it just worked. Just like how Picasso painted,, he didn't sit there analyzing the paint molecular structure against the canvas under the moonlight. 1-2-3 done. masterpiece
He absolutely didn´t! If you see interviews and talks with him, especially such where he talks with other commedians about comedy you´ll see that it clearly is very hard work he is putting into his bits. Most of what we see of him are bits taken from purpously recorded specials. We don´t see how he tests and hones those bits in countless smaller gigs before.
To me that deeper societal commentary is what sets Louis CK and this joke apart. He's not just pointing out the ruthlessness of the economy but also that we're complicit in its being the way it is. We start teaching it to our kids at a young age. When he says his daughter isn’t "emotionally developed" yet, what he means is that she is still uncorrupted, innocent. That's the real joke here: On the surface he's acting as the parent who knows better, but he’s really pointing out his own folly-and our folly-that maybe what we think is maturity and wisdom is just that we’ve gotten good at playing a game without questioning its effect on our lives.
foofoodog "Works in bars?" He sells out large arenas and writes/produces/directs several award winning tv series. This guy hasn't only played in bars for a decade.
Filip Galetic pseudo-my-ass. These people are complaining because he "exaggerated the process of making a joke" when there are multiple interviews where Loius C.K., among many other comedians, confirm that they plan jokes out this way.
I totally agree. If you watch his "Arrival: A response to bad movies" video and look at that comments section, it's full of people saying stuff like "Oh, I had no idea what he was talking about most of the time, he should put it in layman's terms or he's going to lose his target audience." It just makes me laugh that they want him to dumb down his content for his "target audience", even though the main draw for most people who enjoy NerdWriter's content is that he's clever enough to spot and analyse things most people just take for granted. It really just proves that they're not actually part of his target audience.
i just discovered this channel, subbed after one video (which i never do) and its already onw of my favourite channels. thank you for this quality content .
It depends on if there are any videos with asses or boobies in the thumbnail... Otherwise, Louis CK is my third choice for auto-clicking! :D In summary, it goes: 1. asses 2. boobies 3. Louis CK 4. 1000 Degree Knife
Its not overanalyzing, Louis CK has been using his jokes to make this type of comments for a very very long time. Is it really that much of a stretch to think he uses a joke about a game invented to criticize capitalism to criticize capitalism ?
Couldn't agree more. While he does make jokes regarding capitalism in indirect means on occasion, he makes sure to make the connection. It's fairly presumptuous to assume he'd change his formula on this specific joke.
Thats literally what the joke is. a slightly disguised joke of capitalism from a game called monopoly. The word monopoly says it all. And his children are now learning how shit the world is through a game made to mimic capitalism.
Louis CK is one of the greatest comedians of our time. He's honestly my personal favorite comedian. His comedy just resonates with me so much. I have the exact same dark, fucked up, depressing sense of humor.
Actually, go watch Louis discuss this very topic with Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais on HBO's "Talking Funny" (it's here on RU-vid). You would find that Louis would agree with the analysis of this video. As Louis says in the clip excerpted here, what he's doing *sounds* spontaneous, but he knows "all the moves." These are guys who love the craft, love the structure of jokes, and work very hard to craft them perfectly. The seeming lack of "complication" is a carefully crafted illusion. Another good example (in a different style) is Rodney Dangerfield. He sounds like he's just throwing out quick one and two-liners as they occur to him. But, if you see him telling the jokes in different venues (on stage, on tv, in interviews), he delivers them exactly the same way. And, if you understand comedy writing and how jokes are structured, you'll notice that the structures of his one and two-liners are so tight and perfectly packaged, you couldn't condense or expand them without losing what makes them work. That's why he was a comedian's comedian who even the comedians of today talk about with awe and respect (and a little sadness because, IRL, he was a little bit of a mess). TL;DR - It *is* that complicated, and Louis would tell you so himself. And has said so directly. The exception, of course, would be when comedians do "crowd work" (where they talk to the audience and riff off whatever they're saying), but, once the comedian is touring for a while, even the crowd work is made up of successful riffs from previous shows, giving them the illusion of ad-libbing with the audience when really they're just sort of mixing-and-matching standard responses to the things they hear over and over again from audiences. And folks like Don Rickles, Robin Williams, and Jonathan Winters are exceptions. They're part of a very small group of comedians who do stream-of-consciousness type comedy and even very good, very successful stand-up comics are in awe of the ability to do that kind of comedy at that level. I'm not sure what the ratio of written-to-riffed was with Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, but my understanding is that Don Rickles never wrote anything. He just went out onstage and started talking. He was apparently also like that IRL. Those guys were great, but, if you really look at their sets critically, you quickly notice that the consequence is that a comparatively large percentage of their jokes make zero sense. Robin Williams was a genius and made some genius comedy, but, a lot of times, people were laughing at the rhythm and funny voices more than the actual content of the joke because the joke had no structure and made no sense. That's the trade-off, I guess.
Hey John. I logged in just to give your post a thumbs up. I had never heard that Rickles never wrote anything. But, when you see him 'riffing' with Johnny Carson, etc. it makes sense. You seem to be a bit of a "comedy nerd" like myself. Have you seen David Steinberg's "Inside Comedy" series, on Showtime..? There are some pretty good interviews on it. Keep laughing. - Jamie
I see the opportunity for this quote everywhere, and I want to apply it here with respect to your line "The seeming lack of "complication" is a carefully crafted illusion." The quote I mean is: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
All the arrogant folks in these comments! "Muh! I already knew that, Nerdwriter! Why are you making a video on something I already know!" *scratches chest* "Muh!"
I would like your comment for being accurate, but with all the monkey sounds and super condescending parroting of their words, you come off as being just as arrogant. In fact, I think I dislike your comment more than theirs.
Just saw him last night in Toronto. He is absolutely INCREDIBLE at providing context, very economically. His choice of words is always impeccable and he's a pro at making it genuinely seem like everything is off the cuff. Love him!
Ck is definitely a rapist. He fully admitted to being a twisted sexual deviant. He should be rotting is a prison cell for the rest of his life but his white male privilege got him out of trouble. Sad.
Why not? Do you really think it was an anecdote about playing Monopoly with his daughters? Nedwriter sees hidden meanings and structures in everything. It's what great theorists do. Also, your Clockwork Orange avatar suggests you know stuff about culture.
no hes saying we naturally associate it with monopoly because its essentially a game about capitalism. Which is what makes the dark parts of this joke darker and also funnier.
Now it's my turn to dissect why Roiben100's comment is hilarious. Progressives are often mocked for seeing a criticism of capitalism in every piece of art, even in the least likely places. But here, the comical effect comes from the fact that the reference to the brutality of the economy is completely obvious to the audience - except Roiben100
Luis C.K. has a great talent for setting the mood for the joke. He is also good at turning around very offensive jokes. We can be very glad that Luis C.K. became a comedian and makes us all happy
I love when you do Louis CK videos. I'm British, most of my favourite comedians are British, but Louis CK is hands down the best comedian in the world. And only you can break it down and illustrate precisely why that is! Love it!
Great analysis. Just watched one for Arrival and now this one. Louis CK is one of my favorite comedians. I just subscribed to your channel. Keep up the great work!
This if fucking amazing. Thank you for the in-depth breakdown of a legend at work. I, myself have always been a fan of comedy but recently, I've decided I'd like to perform on stage one day and writing jokes is a topic I'm COMPLETELY lost on. Personally, I like to gather as much information as I can on a subject (typically in book form) before I apply myself to a new craft. Can you recommend any great comedy writing books or any other great sources (tutorials, videos, etc.) to help me get started writing stand-up comedy? Thank you again!
F. Jacob Alvarado great comment! And you articulate my exact sentiments. Ive recently been feeling the itch to try to perform one day but have zero idea about constructing something solid. Ive simply been trying to take notes on items I find funny and hope to one day make them stories or jokes or one liners or anything that works really! And now I'm learning about the premise/ punch line concept which I guess I inherently knew but didn't call it that. Anyways, glad to hear someone is on a similar trail. Thanks for commenting!
F. Jacob Alvarado if I were you I'd just try to observe different stand ups and sort of figure out what methods work and which ones don't. Look out for a variety of comedians and their shows, look up their ratings and reviews from critics, figure out which ones are your personal favorites, the funniest, the ones that inspire you the most. Learn their style(s) and incorporate it with how YOU want your style to be, then experiment on your own with family, co-workers, friends, acquaintances, even strangers to get an honest reaction. I don't think you can learn to tell decent jokes just by reading a how-to book, just observe, figure out, and practice.
Great video, thank you! Your thoughts speak volumes about how great stand-up comedians are also brilliant writers, and even beyond that, masters of the language and expression. I'm in awe of people such as Louis C.K., Billy Conolly, George Carlin, Eddie Izzard and Diance spencer, and it has taken me a long time to understand the reasons why that is. Sure it's obviously that I like their humor, but I think your point about their ability to express ideas through comedy, and at best to get us thinking about those ideas, is a big part of the appeal. At least I can relate to that thought.
This is what makes Louis special. He can get so much mileage out of a simple joke. Retelling one of his jokes almost never does justice to his oratory skills.
