The Argument Sketch with John Cleese and Michael Palin is a great example of comedic timing: ràpid fire at times, and pauses just long enough at other times to make the absurd sketch work. Here’s the abbreviated version.
The ultimate in “Too soon!” jokes were those about Challenger, which appeared virtually within hours of the disaster. Anyway, they rival “Dead Baby” jokes in terms of taselessness.
agreed, but if he hadn’t paused, the joke would have failed completely even if the audience knew all about the stingy reputation.
Another example is the Tootsie Fruitsy Ice Cream bit in A Day at the Races. The bit works because Groucho takes paused every time Chico tells him he needs another book.
Think of it like a horror film.
If you dress someone up in a scary-looking rubber monster suit and have them run around on camera, never disappearing from sight, for the full two hours, not coming any closer, not going any further away, you’re generally not going cause the audience to jump up and scream.
Whereas, you take that same person in the same suit, film an open doorway with a slow slow pan and you wait…
And wait…
And wait…
And wait until the audience has decided that you’re not going to do anything after all…but not so long that they’re just getting bored and getting their phone out of their pocket and regretting that they plonked down money for this crap.
AAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHHHHH! The monster is spliced in for a quick moment, everyone jumps, and we got what we were going for.
Jokes rely on getting people into a certain set of expectations and then pulling the rug out from those expectations. The requires that the people have enough time to get to where you want them, but not so much time to work out the correct answer (the punchline) nor lose interest.
That might mean a pause of correct length. It might mean padding the tale by the right amount. But it amounts to the same thing, getting the audience primed and then…
…throwing a moist rubber monster up on screen for a flash.
Another classic example of timing is the “Si Sy” routine with Jack Benny and Mel Blanc. The humor is all based on repetitive sounds and rhythm, especially Benny’s pauses followed by Blanc’s non-pauses.
A master of comedic timing is Rowan Atkinson, watch “Blackadder” for examples of how to extract the most from a couple of of words with just timing and intonation.
e.g.
“well then…Bob”
“thank you young crone, here is a bag of moneys…which I’m not going to give to you”
On a related note, Fry and Laurie are great exponents. Such as the “understanding barman”
Two masters of comic timing are Dave Allen and Rowan Atkinson. The pacing and pauses make their routines especially hilarious:
**WARNING: NSFW** [spoiler][spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7OxTxAvvLw[/spoiler][/spoiler] Enjoy! :cool:…well the “Jerk Store” called, and they were out of YOU!
Would be an example of bad comedic timing (since Costanza came up with this witty retort during the car ride home, long after the opportunity to use this zinger had passed).
Brings to mind Bob Newhart’s one-side-of-the-conversation phone calls, where he pauses long enough to get across that the guy on the other end is of course saying something, but he doesn’t hold each pause long enough for the bit to overstay its welcome; it’s not about how long the other response actually would’ve taken, it’s about waiting just long enough to emphasize that he’s now replying — to what we can, right then, realize the other guy was meant to have said.
(At that, Newhart’s timing punches up pretty much all of his material. “I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’.”)
Take the classic mini-joke “Take my wife, please!” I heard that punchline any number of times as a kid, from people doing their not-very-good Henny Youngman impression, and didn’t even understand what was supposed to be funny - because it’s all in the delivery. “Take my wife” (hesitation, with “Take my wife” understood as “Now here’s a story about what my wife is like,” then “Please!” (leading to a new interpretation of “Take my wife”) makes the joke work.
Sammy Davis Jr., in his autobiography, gives a simple example. He responded to a heckler by saying “I’d love to give you drowning lessons in my pool”. Another comedian afterward told him to do it differently. He told him to say “Why don’t you come over sometime and use my pool?” Then the audience is wondering why he is being nice to someone who is heckling him. Then say “I’d love to give you some drowning lessons!” Thus the “in my pool” doesn’t step on the punch line about drowning, and the pause between the invitation to “use my pool”, and drowning lessons, gives a chance for tension to build, which is relieved by the “drowning lessons” line.
Comedy is the sudden perception of incongruity. Comedic timing is building tension so that the perception is sudden, or so that the punch line suddenly relieves the building tension.
Steven Wright was good at this (along with his one-liners).
“I bought some used paint.”
pause
“It was in the shape of a house.”
“I bought some used paint in the shape of a house” isn’t as funny.
Regards,
Shodan
Nicely done!