Lesson 8: Misdirection

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Chris Head
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Let’s zoom in and look more closely at a technique I mentioned in the last lesson: misdirection. I would unconsciously have laughed at misdirection for years, but I first became consciously aware of it watching Have I Got News For You in the 90s. (A formative decade for me.) I didn’t yet have a word...

Let’s zoom in and look more closely at a technique I mentioned in the last lesson: misdirection. I would unconsciously have laughed at misdirection for years, but I first became consciously aware of it watching Have I Got News For You in the 90s. (A formative decade for me.) I didn’t yet have a word for it, but I began to notice that host Angus Deayton would often make the audience assume he was talking about one news story and then, at the last moment, would reveal he was talking about another.

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Tren Griffin 2 months ago

“The number one element that generates human laughter is surprise.” When I attend a stand up comedy show my favorite part is thinking about the writing. I saw some improv comedy in Austin just this week. I've been thinking about the jokes since then.