Comedy Book by Jesse David Fox

Author:Jesse David Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Chappelle, wearing all black, moving between hunching over on a stool and standing at attention, moves his voice between reflection, a cry for help, and a pained scream. It is powerful. It is full of power. A gifted comedian, he masterfully jumps between personal and historical parallels, providing the audience information but also conveying exactly what the moment felt like to him, personally, in all its hurt and terror. Overwhelming to behold, this nearly thirty-minute jeremiad is not funny at all. Those are Chappelle’s words: “This is not funny at all.” No one laughs. No one wants to. 8:46 has been watched over thirty million times on YouTube.

But is this comedy? It’s as close to a sermon as it is to stand-up, but sermons don’t air on a YouTube channel called “Netflix Is a Joke.” I am not arguing that giant media companies get to decide, but that 8:46, whatever it is, is a piece of work in conversation with the history of comedy. Part of its power comes from the fact that it is a comedian doing it. The subtext of the performance is This is how serious the situation is: A comedian can’t be funny. It reminds me of a time Robin Williams was asked if he got laughs when he started out and responded, “You have to. There is very little stand-up tragedy.”24 So, is it comedy? I don’t know. Honestly, it is up to you to decide for yourself. Do you want to allow comedy to include moments in culture like this? There is no right answer. This isn’t math. It’s art.

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