Three Levels of Comedy – According to Eddie Izzard

I read a few interviews with Eddie Izzard upon studying him for my comedian presentation. In one interview there was a bit of him explaining the three levels if humor. Jerry's observations on the everyday life put him in the second level, but for explanations sake, “There’s sort of three levels of comedy that I notice. One is comedy in the room-which is ‘Where are you from, Sir? Where did you get that haircut?’… talking about stuff in the room. Everyone can see what’s going on and they react to it-it’s the first level.” Eddie uses this first level as the most basic humor for an audience with short attention spans, childlike low. He continues, “The second level is observational, which most people get into: ‘I was in the supermarket the other day,’ and people know about supermarkets, and they’re going, ‘Yeah, supermarket…’”. Eddie continues on a third level, but before I proceed, this second level has Jerry Seinfeld written all over it. His milk routine is exactly the humor Izzard is describing, and it is the same humor I find funniest. Elaborating on one of my blogs from earlier, this is the most shocking type of humor for me. People, like Jerry, make a living off of supermarket observations. If it’s so easy, why can’t I do it? But I will give Jerry some credit because he has a bunch of Porsches, and I do not. And finally, “The third level is when you get surreal, when you say, “ ‘I was on the moon, and a man came up with a gun, and he was chewing gum and playing piano at the same time.’ You really have to have them with you and wanting to buy into that world if they’re gunna come with it”. This third level is primarily where Eddie dabbles in his comedy. For instance, his centerpiece for his “Dress to Kill” tour evolved around the Inquisition of the Catholic Church and a long skit on different circumstances regarding the pope. This type of humor is just a little beyond observational where the audience has to pay a little closer attention.

Observational Humor

The humor, based on the premise of “it’s funny because it’s true,” makes observations about both minor and major occurrences in modern American culture. The great thing about it is that as time progress, the jokes change as well. Comedians will be making observational humor for decades to come. In the 70’s, Dave Letterman and Richard Pryor were all the fuss. Today, Chris Rock and Dane Cook, among others have made a living pointing out simple habits of mankind. There is a line for me where observational humor just seems ridiculous. On the lower end of the evolutional chain Mitch Hedberg has brought observational humor to its knees. He exposes the barest observations; it is remarkable he could make money with the jokes he used to tell. Granted they are funny (I get a club sandwich, and I’m not even a member), I find myself wondering why I am laughing at this sub-primal material.
Modern observational humor is essentially putting everyday conflicts or situations into a seemingly hilarious format. It seems almost too easy. “You go to the grocery store, and buy milk, or do you? Do I need milk?” As in Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up clip the class saw, raises simple yet thought-provoking situations. Because the next time a member of the audience is at the grocery store they are sure to second guess their milk purchase.
This type of humor is based on the common man’s idiosyncrasies which we all adhere to. The great thing about observational humor is its ability to transcend socioeconomical boundaries, to some extent of course. For Seinfeld, this boundary seemed endless; anyone, anywhere could understand his simple grocery store humor. It is the Dave Attel-esque dog dick jokes that get a little weird. That type of extremist observational humor is on the outer boundaries as far as an audience goes. Those types of jokes might only adhere to a specific population, in Attel’s case, people who have seen a dog’s family jewels. So from Mitch to Jerry to Dave, observational humor will be spoken by stand-up comedians about a variety of topics, at a varying level of language ratings, for decades to come.