Mike Pesca

So how do you say this in a way that maximizes being funny?

How do you say this in a way that is true but not so true?

Comedians hate claptor.

So these are the discussions I've been having, and so far it's been really interesting to me, and the audience has responded well.

And this goes back to Plato, who we definitely don't talk about.

But, you know, he would point to the fact that he was pretty suspicious of humor because he thought it was, well, you're just sneaking in under the tent, making people laugh and filling them with bad ideas.

But what a lot of these comedians think about is, why do we think this way?

And then they, perhaps alone in our society, are allowed and incentivized to say the opposite of the groupthink approach.

or to try to explore why we are saying things this way, and then to play around with a premise that might seem offensive.

And one great thing that I talk to comedians, what they love is when they start off with the premise that we all agree on, and then they take the opposite side of the premise, and then they essentially convince people, you know what, maybe you're right.

Like Sam Jay talking about why shouldn't blackface be acceptable, which is something that most of us would say, whoa, hey, Sam Jay, who is black?

makes her point.

Is she being absurd?

Is she exaggerating a little bit of both?

But at the end, you're like, huh, that is interesting.

There is a contradiction there, you know?

And maybe it's just funny, but it is thoughtful.

And so the thoughtful part, I'm really, really fascinated with.

Well, let's see.

As I go through them, I suppose I had not so much a debate, but I did push back on Sam Jay.