Or someone telling your joke or anecdote a little later on that same day to another group of people while you're present, and getting a bigger reaction than you did.
Yes jim, this and replies to your comment have happened to me more than once. If there is a place of everlasting pain once dead then these joke thieves deserve every hour.
+Jim I always had people asking me to tell the story. I'd try my best to add a sortof..building-up-vibe to the story, but most of the time, the people were rude, drunk, busy or all three and would yell; 'get on with it' halfway through. They'd then leave, come back near the ending and spoil the clou with; 'but hey, wha-what? Who wassat then? Who was the girl that got the coffee, who..I don't get it...tell it again!" And I'd be forced to re-tell it, during which they usually walked off agáin. I only once had a group listening to my stories (I will admit they can take up to 7 minutes if it's a réálly good one) and they burst into laughter and loved it. Honestly, I think I've just been aiming at the wrong crowd all this time. I need the kind that listens to 'classic scrapes from James Acaster' and is sober. I've got so much material. The time I punched a clown in the face with a swimmingpoolnoodle. The time I was in a school-protest-band, but we hád to split up because of drama, before we could have a gig. The time I got my face stuck in two pieces of barbed wire, while trying to pet a pony. The time I rescued a guy, while surrounded by hookers on the red light district in Amsterdam. The time I was encouraged to draw swastika’s by my black geography teacher. The time I played Jesus in a schoolplay, but made the entire school laugh their bums off by accident. The time I handed in a urine-sample at the doctors office, but things went horribly wrong. The first time I visited England, when I was almost run over by a double-decker, my toiletpaper got stolen and when I had dinner, we found foreign items in the food. ALL of these stories, I have never been able to share at parties. They are such góód stories. I nééd to become a comedian...
I had a friend that would often pass off my anecdotes as his own. The worst thing was he'd tell them to other people infront of me, then turn to me and say "didn't something similar happen to you?" encouraging me to tell my own "similar" anecdote. I'd always just reply "no" through gritted teeth. I don't know how people have the nerve to do that shit.
This reminds me the time Richard appeared on a quiz show and responded to the topic of anecdotes by relating how he hated people retelling anecdotes that they knew he had previously heard.
Yeah except it's not a true story - it's a constructed joke. That's Skinner's great failing as a comic - too often he presents cookie-cutter jokes as though they were anecdotes.
WalterLiddy It was probably true. It wasn't exactly a joke, it was just pertinent to the conversation. I can't imagine him saying that otherwise and it ever being considered funny.
Recursion. The act of going inside the anecdote where another anecdote was being told is closer to recursion than inception. People mix up the names because of the movie, which isn't really their fault, but every time I hear it, it gets to me.
It was infact an anecdote about an anecdote about an anecdote given context with an anecdote about a person looking for an anecdote. A 5 fold anecdote.
I'll agree, except I have to add Richard Burton...of course there are two flaws with my justification - apart from the obvious one, he was also an alcoholic so probably bored people silly repeating himself. But oh, that voice...
I am fairly certain that it is illegal by several paragraphs in books of royal law to not write out BRIAN BLESSED!!!s name in all caps and a minimum of two exclamation marks.
This is where you see how gentlemanly Ayoade is. When she starts (apparently un-selfconsciously) relating an anecdote, he COULD have chosen to rip her to shreds. You know he could. Undercutting other people's jokes with far less provocation is his specialty. But he didn't.
It's not even the language use. It's just people in the comments have such a childish idea of what comedians do. They seem to think panel shows are like rap battles and every comedian is trying to 'put the other down' and outwit the other. And I just don't consider Ayoade potentially making a lighthearted joke about her repeating an anecdote (something that isn't even witty, just a casual observation) as 'ripping her to shreds'.
WalterLiddy, would you also call someone gentlemanly for not walking around punching people in the face? I mean, if they *could* do it and they don't, it merits applause and respect, right?
I understand your reaction, ConspiracyJuice, and agree that there is a tendency to exaggerate the ways in which comedians interact. In an episode of The Comedian's Comedian, Stewart Lee cites a main reason for his absence on panel shows being that very notion that it is a game of one-upmanship and that the participants are just jostling to most cleverly put down each other.
I've got a good story. You're going to love this. My Uncle Alton only had three fingers on his right hand; his thumb, little finger, and ring finger. I asked him how he lost his fingers. He told me he bet $20 he could hold back a 5 HP motor by the belt and it pulled his index finger through the pulley! I then asked about his middle finger. He said "Well I had to go double or nothing!" True story!
I went up to a complete stranger on a hot summers day in 2017 He was watering his flowers in his small front garden and asked him to hose me down. As he was doing this the water, mysteriously, went off and his wife turned it off mid-street shower ! Luckily he persuaded her to turn it back on, This was in Greenwich in South East London having been on a London Boat Trip along The Thames and making my way back to the train station. It's an anecdote....
i love bill bailey but ive 3 dvds of his seperate shows where he has basically the same performance of jokes with a little ad lib thrown in. so i get Richard there.
That thumb anecdote actually reminded me of when I was also working in a saw mill, also in NZ, and a chap sawed all the fingers of his right hand off. Must be what people travel here for I guess.
fongfongy I work with a kiwi guy and he told me it actually used to be somewhat common for people to cut ofd their fingers or toes for a pay out. They used to give a pretty big compo for losing a finger at work so the lazy ones or the ones that were bad with money would do it every so often if they wanted a quick bit of cash. They changed the law now though so it's not quite as easy
Although Richard did accuse jimmy Carr of looking like Roger Fedderer, this was after Jimmy had suggested He was a ‘downs’ Roger Fedderer in his live show! Repeated anecdote......I rest my case m’lord.
When you tell someone a fun fact and they say it right back to you a few weeks later. My mum tells me about the liver being able to repair itself up to about 80%. She tells me that and makes an excuse for her being able to drink a lot of alcohol and I’m thinking in my head “what have I done”
Anyone ever have a friend try and tell either yourself, or others, one of your anecdotes and get it wrong and miss details?? Happened to me once years ago in a bar with my drunk friend who used to love repeating his stories. And i cant even remember the story now as i forget most of mine
I've actually got one of the funniest anecdotes known to man, but I can't type it out here, because I don''t want anyone, e.g. a comedy writer, to steal it and claim it as their own. Speaking of which, I remember Peter Kay once re-telling a short anecdote that a contestant on 'Family fortunes' once told, in one of his stand up shows.
Or has was once said to me when I said 'Here's something interesting'. And they said 'Interesting to who'. Of course I could have said 'Don't you mean to whom' but I was too busy laughing.
my husband has the habit of telling stories about weird things that happened to me as if they had happened to him and I often think he has no idea they didn't.
It all just code thought Richard is telling him this type of show will go on with out him being on it he's showing this is all for the host not the panellist
However the thumb story is not an anecdote, hence why it is told with gusto, it is a joke that I must have first heard a variation of 40 years ago and it was old then. Gaby,did you not realise this?
The problem with my anecdotes, are that I often suddenly realise towards the end that nothing remotely interesting happened to tie up the story and have the listener amazed or amused. I'll try to make something of it by putting gusto into the way I conclude "...So, yeah, he and some toast.", but it really does nothing to disguise the fact that I've just told a story about a man who ran out of cereal one morning, so had something else to eat instead. I'll sometimes try to lie my way out of an awkward bum ending, but my pathetic imagination will more than likely let me down with a line as humdrum as "But he didn't have a butter, so he had some jam.". I'm so jealous of people who can spontaneously hold court with something interesting or funny. Bugger it. :-(
Oh, I don't know if you will read this, but your comment had me laughing heartily! The pure way you describe the sensation of having realized you're telling a story going nowhere interesting at all, and how you pitifully try to give the audience what they tuned in for is hilarious!
I was hoping Richard or Frank would cut Gabby off at the exact moment she mentioned getting cut off... that would have been class. Nvm lol Also, I thought it was funny how there was a link between her not liking getting cut off and the theme of her favourite anecdote being things getting cut off.
No, I'm British. His humour doesn't appeal to me. This might surprise you, but not every British person likes him based solely on the fact they're British.
Really? I don't think they look at all alike. Or sound alike. Or do similar material. Or have similar personalities. Otherwise I agree with your question completely.
Both and neither. It's basically a show where celebs rant about things that annoy them, and the person who gets most of their pet hates put into Room 101 by Frank wins the show (but no one cares who wins)
He says the husband often wrestles the anecdote away from his wife like he is stealing the glory. It's not really him disrespecting his wife so much as saving their friends from horrible story telling. Most women don't know how to stay on point with their stories or request too much feed back like "we were at Waterworld. Oh wait, Seaworld. Have you been there? It's so amazing. You have? Did you see the penguins? Well anyway, we were at Seaworld and ..."
