# What exactly is meant by "comic timing"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809 "2010-03-09T04:00:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/21 "2010-03-09T18:05:03Z")
To get all nerdy about it - The key ingredient for any comedy act is tension. Laughter results from the realization that something tense or threatening was resolved in a harmless manner. The way I see it comedic timing can be used in three different ways to achieve these two objectives. [clips probably NSFW] The first is a pause to allow the audience to catch up to the comic. It gives them a chance to digest what the comic just said and subconsciously identify the tension he is creating or created. For example: Bill Cosby on [cocaine](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCklVb5OOEE#t=5m48s). The pause right after the coke-head says, “[Cocaine] intensifies your personality” gives the audience just long enough to digest what the coke-head thinks is great about cocaine and start to conjure up the image of an intense coke-head right as Cosby nails the absurdity of that statement on the head with the elegant rejoinder, “Yes, but what if you’re an asshole.” The second is using a pause to actually create most, if not all of the tension. The [Spinal Tap](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll7rWiY5obI&feature=related#t=1m52s) scene referred to above is probably the best example of this. The tension is created by Nigel’s silence. We don’t know how he’s going to react. Is he angry, confused, just realized how absurd 11 is, etc. Then the payoff comes when he says these go to 11 and we realize he’s an idiot and didn’t understand a word of what was just said. The third is omitting a pause so that the abruptness creates tension. This works great for inserting witty remarks in conversation but can fall flat on its face in a routine since you’re leaving it up to the audience to realize the resolution was in the words you abruptly stated. A good example is [Mitch Hedberg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5AkGWuuN5Q#t=1m07s): it’s a simple corny pun, and if he had inserted a long pregnant pause it more than likely would have gotten groans instead of belly laughs, but the speed with which he says it throws in that extra bit of confusion which makes it much funnier when resolved. For me, to have ‘good comedic timing’ means that a comic knows which of these three approaches works best for a particular joke, just how long a pause should be, how they work best for his stage persona (Bill Cosby can get away with longer pauses than Lewis Black), and how to pepper the three throughout his routine to keep the audience guessing. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/22 "2010-03-09T18:05:49Z")
Jerk store! ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/23 "2010-03-10T00:34:24Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > Alternately: > > “What’s the most important thing for a comedian to know?” > “What?” > \ > \ > \ > “Timing.” > > It helps if you stare at the other guy disconcertingly while you wait, as well. See, you blew this one. You ought to have given the setup and stopped, then zombied this thread in 5 years and said “Timing.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/24 "2010-03-10T01:04:54Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > One of the best jokes to try for the timing is: > > An individual human being goes back to the doctor to receive the results of recently run extensive tests. This exchange ensues: > > P: Okay, Doc, what can you tell me? > D: Well, it’s not very good news. You have a fast-spreading global cancer that is destroying your vital organs at a terrifying pace. > P: Jesus, Doc. Is there anything you can do? > D: Afraid not. It’s terminal and there’s not even an effective treatment or surgery that would slow it down. > P: Well, Doc, how long do I have? > D: Ten > P: Ten what? Years? Months? Weeks? Days? > D: Nine “An idividual human being”? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/25 "2010-03-10T03:09:32Z")
There’s also the sense of drawing out a gag, like if a comedian was telling a story involving guns and was making sound effects, how many times they yell “bang!” is another example of timing. Of course, pauses come into effect too. A couple times just makes it a story element, too few makes it awkward, the right amount makes it funny. Going over this time limit makes it awkward again, interestingly, if you go over a certain threshold it can become funny again. Family Guy uses this a LOT, which I believe TV Tropes calls “crossing the line twice,” though that’s a little more general, to varying effect. > [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > “An idividual human being”? Well of course, if it was a distributed consciousness it wouldn’t be funny! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/26 "2010-03-10T04:29:28Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Well of course, if it was a distributed consciousness it wouldn’t be funny! What, you thought the Dope was limited to Homo Sapians on the planet Earth? Have you ever looked in the Great Debates forum? ---
**Author:** ![cheeseb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@cheeseb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheeseb)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/27 "2012-09-13T15:04:11Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > My favorite example of the importance of timing is from the movie _Spinal Tap_. People love to quote the bit about the amplifier that “goes to 11”, but the fact that the knobs go to 11 isn’t funny. The funny is the pause. The IMDB quote section has it as: > > **Marty DiBergi:** Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder? > **Nigel Tufnel:** [pause] These go to eleven. > > …but that [pause] should actually be expanded to: > > [Nigel pauses with an utterly cow-like expression on his face indicating a complete lack of understanding of the thing Marty DiBergi just said] These go to eleven. > > The pause is the joke. Yes. > [@carlb](#): > > Last night’s episode of _Big Bang Theory_ had a moment of fantastic timing from Jim Parsons (Sheldon). Someone mentions Adam West, and Penny of course asks, “Who’s Adam West?” Parsons’ head snaps up so quickly in shock that what should have been an amusing moment was very, very funny. If he had waited another couple of milliseconds it would have looked like an obvious gag. Instead, it looked like an honestly shocked and appalled reaction on the character’s part. > > Jim Parsons is really the reason _Big Bang Theory_ works as well as it does. Yes, Sheldon is a caricature, and more often than not he’s painfully over the top. But Parsons’ acting, and particularly his timing, is so good that he can sell average jokes and gags and make them funnier than they should be. No. And in fact, this was posted when? In 2010? I joined this board for the sole purpose of telling Carl that “big Bang Theory” and “comedy” are totally opposite things. In fact, it ruins all of your comedic credibility to reference Big Bang Theory as an example of good comedy. I posted this in September 2012. THAT, my friend, is EXCELLENT timing! ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/28 "2012-09-13T15:41:24Z")
> [@Trepa\_Mayfield](#): > > Alternately: > > “What’s the most important thing for a comedian to know?” > “What?” Timing. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/29 "2012-09-13T16:16:06Z")
> [@cheeseb](#): > > No. And in fact, this was posted when? In 2010? I joined this board for the sole purpose of telling Carl that “big Bang Theory” and “comedy” are totally opposite things. In fact, it ruins all of your comedic credibility to reference Big Bang Theory as an example of good comedy. > > I posted this in September 2012. THAT, my friend, is EXCELLENT timing! This kind of works, on the same meta-level as the “Jerk Store” episode of Seinfeld, mentioned above. Tentatively, I think I am amused. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809/30 "2012-09-13T16:34:14Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > At my bachelor party, back in the mid-Eighties, I saw a teenage Chris Rock performing at a club called the Comedy Cellar. He was absolutely AWFUL. Of all the comedians I saw that night, he was the one I’d have told “Pack it in, you’ll never make it in this business.” But just 2 or 3 years later, I saw him on the Arsenio Hall show doing the EXACT same jokes I’d seen him doing at my bachelor party… and he was KILLING! > > The material was, apparently, good all along. What Rock didn’t have the first time was the right sense of timing, the right sense of how to work the audience. If I could play BOTH sets for you, you’d see exactly how much difference on-stage timing makes. I know this is a zombie thread, but I’m going to say this anyway. On Marc Maron’s podcast, one of the guests mentions that when he was just starting out, he went to see his idol Chris Rock at a small comedy club. He said he was very disappointed to see Rock fall completely flat, and but he later learned that Chris Rock knows that Chris Rock can make anything funny with his trademark inflection. When he wanted to try out new material, he’d deliberately go to small clubs and deliver the jokes in a relatively deadpan manner to see if the jokes could survive on their own. The ones that worked he’d apply the Chris Rock delivery to and they’d kill. This may or may not have been the case, depending on when you saw him. It could be that he just wasn’t funny back then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-meant-by-comic-timing/531809.md?page=1)