Get a taste of Demetri Martin's observational humor in this 'Ellen' clip

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/25/get-a-taste-of-demetri-martin.html

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Further proof that humour is a very individual experience.

Not knocking Demetri Martin or Rusty, just reflecting on the fact that I while Rusty was driven to immediately share his work with friends, I found it barely passable.

Oh well. Back to my honey, butter, and pickle sandwich. Now that is a universally appreciated dish.

It’s a very Ellen comedy set.

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Good to know there is a stand-up comic.

This is refered to as a “tight five” in comedy. There’s also a tight ten and a tight fifteen.

And that’s exactly what it is.

Its a fairly important structural concept in stand up comedy. Because it can be iterated upon for longer sets, used in auditions, and its the default chunk of time for TV appearances. Its a bit like the base unit for comedy acts. Stand up legos.

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Demetri Martin I find weird and funny. I have seen several of his specials. His newer one is actually more mainstream than his earlier ones which were much more quirky with his word play and drawings.

He is also the voice of Ice Bear in We Bare Bears.

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Individual indeed, I can’t watch DM for ten seconds without LMAO. I still miss his TV show.

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I like Martin. I enjoyed him on The Daily Show, I enjoyed his TV show, and his stand up special.
I think he’s funny, mostly.

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I am a long time fan of Demetri. Years ago (2011) he was supposed to have been given a deal to develop an animated show years ago but i don’t think that ever materialized.

I don’t think his style of awkward humor is for everyone though, but i do like his stand up material :slight_smile:

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Indeed. Not sure this Demetri Martin joke would go over well on Ellen:

Its okay to like children in general. “I like kids.” The problem is if you get too specific, “I like 13 year-old boys.”

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Yeah, I’m a fan of Demetri Martin (especially Ice Bear) and Ellen, but anyone who expects anything too edgy or risque on her show clearly isn’t familiar with it. And I like that she’s unrepentant about that. She’s up front about what she likes to present and knows it’s not for everyone.

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Observational? Pfft. I wasn’t asked once “what’s the deal” in reference to anything.

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Smoke some weed and he gets very funny.

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I did not know this… thanks for the info!

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Comedy structures are pretty interesting. I was never particularly good at it (its not just about being funny), but I did a bit of sketch and stand up stuff. And still have a bunch of friends who are active comics. There are all sorts of formats and rules.

Have you seen Fabulous Mrs. Maisel. Its really good, and it really digs into the details of how stand up works in a practical sense. Probably what surprised me the most is that its actually funny, and the standup is genuinely good. Usually that sort of thing, movies about performance or art. The in world examples are awful or just bland and there’s this disonance where everyone acts like its good when it isn’t.

That show features solid stand up, and its legitimately funny.

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Disappointment.

What’s the deal with non sequiturs?

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A comment in the youtube said:

[He] just needs to practice transitions. All of the jokes were randomly selected, super random. It made the laughter hesitant because it took longer to understand that he had moved on to a completely different topic.

It’s like telling Woody Allen: “hey, you really shouldn’t stutter when doing your set, and, why all the Jewish references? maybe broaden your material?” Or like telling Harpo Marx: “Well, talk a little bit, at least!” Or…

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I am in the middle of taking a stand-up class. Like taking a pottery class, I will never say, “How hard can that be?” ever again.