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.