The iComedy Theory

I’ve come up with a theory – it’s my first theory so don’t be too harsh. I’ve called it the iComedy theory because it revolves around how I think new technology and social networking is changing the face of humour and how this change has allowed anybody to become their own comedian.

In the old days, if you wanted to tell a joke to a lot of people you’d have to find work at a comedy club and get yourself a five minute slot after convincing the management. Then you’d probably stress over your material for hours on end by trying to get input from everyone and anyone to reassure yourself that the crowd will love you and your jokes – remember, these people probably haven’t paid to see this new talent so they won’t hold any bars if they don’t like what they hear and probably wouldn’t be above heckling until the act broke down into tears.

However, in 2010 and with the introduction of Facebook and Twitter I reckon that the whole aspect of comedy is going to change, where instead of being talent spotted in a dingy bar at 2am sweating like a Liberal Democrat realising a hung parliament is inevitable while being covered in urine thrown at you by drunk truckers who think they’re attacking a The Who support act, that you’d instead catch the eye of an agent with one simple Tweet.

For my theory to have any basis I need to further explain why I think social networking is rapidly evolving comedy… I’ll try my best. Picture this: you’re sitting at work or at school, twiddling your thumbs trying to make one go forwards and the other one go backwards but you instead see something happen in the class or office you’re in and bam… You’ve thought of a great observational comedy joke, or overhear a funny conversation that you can take out of context, or you’re browsing BBC News and you’re able to think of a dark joke about a murder or a rape or something. If you have your phone or a computer handy, you can simply type out the joke and send it off to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. There you have it; it’s done, no trucker’s urine on you and hundreds of people have now read your joke, and if they enjoy it then they’ll either ‘like’ it, comment it or send you a Tweet back. Instant gratification in action.

This goes one step further with Twitter though, if people really like your joke – they may retweet it for a whole new audience to read and reply back to you, this again creates further feelings of instant gratification – and this time from people who you don’t even know. However, let’s say your joke does not go down well, no-one comments on it or you re-read it and think that you can make it better. No problem, you can simply delete it and start all over again without the fear of getting further backlash because you physically retract your actions.

I do this all the time and therefore have firsthand experience with the iComedy theory, I often think of funny quips that usually involve dark humour to the extent that I often refrain from publishing them such as the following joke: We should elect a black man to become the new Labour leader, you know, it’s ironic… Slave labour. Usually when I publish a joke, 99% of the time people comment it, ‘like’ it or reply which gives me instant gratification because I wouldn’t say such jokes in real life for fear of them not working out which isn’t a problem online because I can simply delete and refine. With everything, however, there are some down sides.

Even though I feel this new wave of comedic expression is a good thing in order for comedy to evolve beyond that of a theatre stage, it all relies on one thing: the published jokes have to be funny, if they’re not funny, (which is obviously subjective, but you know the sort of people I mean), it leads me to think that maybe some people, some time, should shut up.

Steven, Administator.