“ If there were a late-night comedy show completely run by comedy writers, without any interference from a host, producer, or network, that show would probably be called The Darkest and Most Impossibly Horrible Things You Can Imagine, Presented as Comedy. Every sketch would end with a gunshot or an infant’s stroller engulfed in flames, and the show would be canceled halfway through its opening titles. That’s because most comedy writers are so inured by humor that only the most shockingly toxic ideas can achieve the proper velocity to penetrate their indifference.
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Conan writer Todd Levin on how jokes die, for GOOD Magazine “Just Like That but Funny” (via lonelysandwich)
(via atencio)
This quote rings so incredibly true to me. Whenever I’m writing, my mind immediately goes to the darkest move possible. I’ve learned to push past this initial instinct to see if there’s something more clever or unexpected, but the urge is always there. And when I watch comedy that ends darkly, I always love it. I think for me at least, there’s just something so funny about getting someone to laugh at something that objectively is definitely not funny at all.
(via erockappel)
