Ancient mating rituals: The Comedy of the Context Change

Elevate observational comedy by shifting to a sudden change of context

Hello stand-up comedian (and anyone else who wants to write funny).

In my previous post I explored three ways you can create comedy from the topic of driving. In this post I’m adding a fourth – the context change. And we’ll also see it in action in other situations.

Here’s the process:

Establish what happens in the regular context (the observational part)

Suddenly take it into the new context (the twist)

You can apply to any topic, but I’ll start with driving then I’ll go on to couple of examples on dating and relationships.

We’re going to explore two approaches:

A ‘what if?’ fantasy change of context

A real world change of context

My opening example is from Louis CK and then, balancing things out, I have the fiercely feminist Aisling Bea. I’ll close with an example from Jack Dee.

By the end of the post you’ll have a way to elevate your observational comedy bits by taking them into a new context.

Louis CK – fantasy context change

Here Louis CK discusses road rage and, rather than taking a contrary attitude (one of the approaches from my last post), he straightforwardly laments how terrible people become when they are behind the wheel of a car. He uses himself as the foremost example.

“One time I was driving and there was a guy ahead of me and he sort of drifted into my lane for a second and this came out of my mouth… I said: ‘you worthless piece of shit’. What kind of way is that to feel about another human being? That’s somebody’s son.”

He goes on to describe how a driver in a pickup truck did something he didn’t like (he doesn’t even remember what) and in response:

“I yelled out my window. I said, ‘Hey, fuck you!’”

Now we come to the change of context.

“Where outside of a car is that even nearly okay? If you were in an elevator, and you were right next to someone and they leaned into you a little bit, would you ever turn right to their face and go, ‘Hey, fuck you! You worthless piece of shit.’”

Why it works

In the observational opening, the bad driving he is reacting to is very mild. He says, the first driver “sort of drifted into my lane for a second” and he can’t even really remember what the pickup truck driver did (so it obviously wasn’t serious).

This then makes his responses insanely over-the-top and unreasonable which is funny in a way that getting angry at truly terrible driving simply wouldn’t be. So here we have the comedy of the disproportionate reaction.

Then we come to the context change. To my mind, the most obvious change of context would be to make it about pedestrians. So you’d have people walking down the street, one slightly bumping the other, and then you’d have the road rage type reaction. Which could be amusing, but not as comic as where he takes it.

What CK does to take it into more surprising (and so funnier) territory is to place the action in the lift (aka an elevator). When the road rage behaviour is put into this new context, the fact that it is such a confined space, and such a buttoned up environment where strangers tend to be silent, adds to the absurdity.

Aisling Bea - real world change of context

Our driving example was a flight-of-fancy: ‘What if’ we behaved in the same way in elevators? We’ll now go on to the real world change of context. This is where the change really has happened.

Aisling Bea, in the observational opening, discusses flirting and dating in her native Ireland. The comedy comes from noting that Irish-style flirting often has a mocking, banter aspect to it - and really exaggerating that.

“In Ireland we practice this ancient mating ritual - called sneering each other”.

This opening line has some nice misdirection:

“In Ireland we practice this ancient mating ritual…”

That’s the set-up. It sounds like anthropology. It’s then undercut with by the end of the line:

...called sneering each other.”

Which undercuts the highfalutin opening. (I note on the Netflix video that this line doesn’t get a laugh from the US audience but this is definitely a strong line that I imagine usually gets a good response.)

She goes on to explain how it’s very hard to tell if someone Irish is flirting with you or just being genuinely abusive. (Which is a vivid way of putting it). She promises to the answer this conundrum, but this is again misdirection as she then abruptly reveals “YOU CAN’T!”

Bea then goes on to imagine an exchange where one Irish women is telling another about a date she’d had. She says that on her date with an Irish man, he’d said that…

“…I was probably barren because I’d been ridden around the town that many times. I was like the village bicycle. And instead of eggs, I had like tumbleweeds tumbling through my womb.”

The friend asks how she responded and she says:

“Well, I said to him that his penis is so small that condoms won’t actually fit over it. So instead, what you have to do is you have to take a vitamin E capsule and cut it in half and then squeeze out all the oil out of that vitamin E capsule and then put that over his penis. And even then you’d still be able to fit your pinky around the circumference of it”.

Here Bea is conjuring strong comic visual images. The friend responds:

“Oh my god and so what’s happening?”

The appalled ‘oh my god’ helps make the following line more suprising (and so more funny) when the friend responds:

“We’re moving in together. I really really like him.”

That’s the observational part. Now, we come to the change of context. Aisling Bea is now in the United States. So this time it’s a real change of context, not a fantasy. She starts out by saying:

“But in America you guys are such weirdos. Someone came up to me in the middle of the day in a coffee shop and he was like…”

This build up is misdirection. We’re certainly now expecting some kind of inappropriate behaviour, even eclipsing the Irish example. Instead, Bea quotes the American man saying:

“Hey how are you? Sorry, I just I heard your Irish accent there and my grandmother was Irish. I’d love to talk to you sometime. Sorry if this is too forward, but there’s my number. You’re under no obligation to ring me at all, but I’d love to take you for coffee sometime.”

To this very polite and respectful approach Bea responds (absolutely affronted):

“What?! It’s the middle of the day!! I’m completely sober!! We haven’t even had sex yet and you’re asking me for a coffee? F*ck off you rapist!”

She’s gone from a context where rudeness is all part of flirting to a context where she finds politeness and consideration. Rather than applauding that, having been acclimatised to Irish flirting, she acts appalled. This brings us back to the comedy of the disproportionate reaction.

Why it works

First up, it’s essentially a comparison between Irish and American flirting. (Comparisons are at the heart of so much comedy.)

But she doesn’t say at the start: “Irish and American flirting is so different”. That would be a rather plodding way of setting it up and would telegraph where it’s going, taking away the element of surprise.

Instead she begins in the Irish context and goes into comic detail about the style of flirting there. And then, having established the original context, she shifts to the new context. And in this case it’s the comic themselves going into a new context (it’s not just a fantasy).

The comedy comes from carrying over the attitudes from the old context into the new context where they don’t fit.

This is a classic comedy game. It’s like the old job-new job comic scenarios where for example a car mechanic becomes a brain surgeon but carries on behaving like a mechanic in the surgical context.

💡 COMEDY TIP

We saw disproportionate reactions in the CK and Bea bits. In any situation, having a massive reaction to a very small provocation is a great comic game.

You can also go the other way and have a very minimal reaction to something that would normally get a big emotional response (eg, your dog was shot and you shrug - sorry dog lovers). I explore this in sketch comedy in this video where I talk about mismatched emotions.

Jack Dee – fantasy context change

To close, here’s another example of a fantasy change of context. From dating we’re going into a long term relationship.

In an early Jack Dee routine, Dee talks about having arguments with his wife. He starts off by saying (using the British words ‘row’ which for non-Brits rhymes with ‘wow’ not ‘hoe’!)...

“The honest truth of it, we don’t row very much. Actually, rows in my house always start with the same words. I wonder if this will sound familiar to anyone here tonight? Rows in my house always start with these words: ‘You’re in a funny mood.’”

This gets a laugh of recognition. He next describes his terrified reaction, knowing this is leading to a row. Then the cat (in an anthropomorphic moment) exits through the cat flap, saying to itself:

“I’m out of here… I’m too old and too wise to hang around for one of these. You sort yourselves out. I’m going to go out to kill some wildlife. I’ll be back in two hours.”

Dee goes on to explain that the problem is that he hates conflict. He explains how he can never formulate an argument or defend himself, in stark contrast to his wife who is adept at arguing.

He says skill in argument is a fundamental trait of women. So much so. if he were ever in court he’d want a woman defending him. He says she needn’t even be a barrister, any woman would do. He goes on, returning to the domestic row:

“I put my feeble little case forward. ‘I think we use the car equally’.”

His wife responds,

“Oh, do we? Well, I put it to you since we bought the vehicle on the 2nd of June in 1992. Here are the papers. Would you please check them? Are they correct?”

Dee is totally thrown. Having done the observational section, we come to the change of context. He says he steps out for a moment and when he comes back:

“She’s got a wig on and a gown. She’s still summing up. She’s got a family around. They’re the jury going, ‘yeah, yeah’” [And they mime Dee being hung for his crimes].

So the domestic argument is suddenly in the context of the courtroom.

Try it

Begin with your observational comedy. Start with some material about driving, dating or relationships (or any other topic you like).

Then to take it up a level, change the context in which the behaviour is playing out.

Here are the two approaches:

Real world
YOU have literally gone into a new context, but carrying over the old behaviour and attitudes.

Eg , a new job, or you’ve moved, or you were on holiday, or it was a new relationship.

What if?
Or it could purely a ‘what if'?’ fantasy. You are imagining what it would be like if it were to go into this new context.

The new context could be:

Smaller than the original (eg a political row in government goes into a domestic setting)

Bigger than the original (conflict in kids football goes into a professional match)

In the Louis CK example, the new context was smaller - going from the road to a lift. In the Jack Dee example it was elevated - going from the domestic setting to a courtroom.

Over to you

Leave a comment below and tell us about bad or absurd behaviour in driving or relationships - and imagine it in a new context.

Or share a favourite example of stand-up about where the comic does a change of context.

Or share any material or jokes you’re working on where you’d like some input.

Plugs

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And here’s my latest book The Complete Comedy Script Toolkit

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