Louis CK Gives Joe Rogan the Best Explanation of Comedy and Twitter You'll Hear All Year
There are a lot of people who'll say that Louis CK has a lot to answer for. I'll argue that he has answered for them. He had a major movie he'd written and directed pulled before it ever hit theaters. Had to go into career exile for a while. And has worked his way back, one small club at a time, until he won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 2020, and now has a new movie streaming on his own website. You can have a strict personal conduct policy that says you won't ask your female friends to watch you jagoff (I do), and still support the guy getting his career back. Besides, he's funny and brilliant and practically the entire comedy world went to bat for him. So he can't be the monster he was being made out to be five years ago.
I bring this up because what he says in this clip is among the wisest, most useful things I've heard said in a long time. All of it. It should be printed off on small cards, laminated, and carried around in people's wallets along with their credit and debit cards. Including, but not limited to, comics. Basically anyone who tries to express themselves creatively and spends any time at all online.
Louis' take on the relationship a comic has with the audience is something everyone who's done standup can relate to. They do get a vote in your act, with their approval or disapproval. There's going to be those people staring back at you like they're totally not into your bullshit. You can either ignore that person or make it your mission to win them over. Or panic and let it affect you. Or, as he says, sometimes you take that thing that bothers them and push past it. How you respond to their response is entirely up to you.
But regardless, everyone who took the time to get a babysitter, get in the car, drive to a venue and sit down for the show gets a say. I'll add that they always have. When Shakespeare was putting on his plays at Globe Theater, the Groundlings in the cheaps seats down front would literally throw furniture if they didn't like the performance. I'm not saying that means everyone gets to Will Smith you if they think you're not funny. But the ticket they bought entitles them to be involved.
Which, to his point, is the difference between an audience and social media. And there are light years worth of difference. Whether you're a comic or just someone who has an online presence, giving strangers on the internet any agency over what you do is like committing self-harm. They didn't earn it. You owe them nothing. The effort it takes for them to try to destroy is equal to a few thumb strokes. I love the terms he uses. They're "professionally disgruntled." And "it's a sport to get upset." So if you give them any power over the actual audience you've performed for? That way lies madness.
Yet maybe the best part of this conversation is when they both discuss how Twitter is just talk. It used to just be air. But with social media, it all started getting written down and now it's permanent. And someone telling you how much you suck or "Fuck that guy" isn't sincere. Nobody really means what they say.
I've always compared Twitter or the comments section to road rage. Everyone of us at some time has seen someone stray out of their lane in front of us or whatever, and reacted by spitting pure, vile rage at them like they just committed a war crime. Because you don't see them as a human being. They're a motor vehicle. An object. No one but a maniac would go up to the mom behind the wheel who got temporarily distracted looking in the rearview to check on her baby, and scream bloody murder in her face like that. Social media is the same way. Except you're yelling at someone's avatar, through your avatar, which keeps you as anonymous as your car windows.
I say this as a guy who once posted a goofy video on Facebook before I underwent minor knee surgery saying goodbye to my love ones in case I didn't make it. And a stranger who had friended me commented under the post that he hopes I die in my sleep. I thought it was weird, but hilarious. My family members who took chainsaws to the guy did not.
The people I feel for are the ones who can't separate the two. Who not only can't ignore the shit we all take online at some point or another, and instead take it to heart. To internalize the fake hatred, and make it a part of who they are. And also, really anyone who lives in the Matrix, who can't keep one foot on social media and one foot in reality. Maybe it's just because I was an adult a long time before I ever got a smartphone, but I love dropping off the grid. A weekend day spent hanging out using my phone for nothing but music or some non-relevant podcasts is bliss. Sometimes coming back online isn't a distraction; it's the opposite. It's work. And I pity anyone who grew up with a phone in their pocket who puts more time and effort into their online presence than their actual life.
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Then again, it might just be that I've had plenty enough comedy audience members let me know first hand they're not into my nonsense. Hearing it from 1s and 0s on Twitter or the comment section say. Anyway, great thoughts from two outstanding comics. Lessons we should all commit to memory.