Norm Macdonald's classic moth joke, and the difference between stand up and improv - and what it means for learning together
Transcript of this video:
The late Canadian comedian, Norm Macdonald, tells a joke about a moth that goes into a podiatrist, and the podiatrist says to the moth, oh, how can I help you?
And the moth says, “well, I don’t know where to begin. I lie in bed at night unable to sleep, feeling anxious about the state of my life, and then I look across the bed at my wife, and I realize I’m not sure that she loves me anymore, and then I think I’m not actually sure that I love her anymore, and don’t get me started on my son. He seems so angry with me, as if he really hates me, and, well, sometimes I realize he might be right, and I think I kind of hate myself, and I’m not sure my life has any meaning anymore.”
And the podiatrist turns to the moth and says, “well, that’s just terrible, I’m so sorry, but it sounds to me like you need to see, I don’t know, a priest or maybe a psychotherapist. I’m just a podiatrist. What made you come in here?”
“Oh, says the moth, the light was on.”
And what I noticed when I practiced telling that joke, I couldn’t stop myself from a little bit of a smirk coming onto my face just as I got to the punchline, and it reminded me of someone who explained the difference between standup comedy and good improv.
He said, in good standup, when the comedian delivers the punchline, the audience gets a surprise but the comedian doesn’t, whereas the best moments in improv are when an improviser says something that’s funny to the audience and that’s also funny to the performer, because it comes as a surprise to everyone, and that surprise is all-inclusive.
And I sometimes think a lot of the training we get wants to put us in the position of the standup, the one who’s a little bit ahead of the game and gets to surprise others, and that might give rise to that little smirk of, I don’t know what it is, discomfort or pleasure in power, I’m not quite sure which it is.
And maybe we’d be better off being more like the improviser, delighting in being jointly surprised with the people around us because that actually might create a more level playing field where we might actually learn more.
Photo by Josh Mills on Unsplash
