I know I’ve discussed this with other cartoonists before, but I don’t think I could say it better than Jon Stewart did recently on TV Land’s “Sit Down Comedy”:
Humor is by its very essence incredibly subjective and not seen as something that is in any way… It’s not like singing and painting… Singing and painting is magic.
Somebody can paint a beautiful picture; people can look at that and think ‘that’s magic. I don’t know how to do that.’
Singing, when people sing beautifully, you know. You can hear your own voice.
Everyone thinks they’re funny.
So, for a comedian, no one thinks that what we’re doing is anything, they just think we’re f**king lucky.
He goes on a minute later…
It’s a very interesting… because it’s so accessible to peoples’ own… everyone can be funny, or knows that they’re funny. It’s a very accessible form, so in terms of any artistic merit, it ranks between, let’s say, mime and stripping.
Technorati Tags: cartooning, comedy, humor, TV