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It takes only a quick glance at the
most "faved" and retweeted updates to know that tweeters love the funny. A good 140-character quip is a jewel in any
TwitterTwitter
feed, and the network has impacted humor for pros and amateurs alike.If you tweet with the right crowd, Twitter can be a hilarious non-stop party. And if you follow professional comedians who use Twitter well, you've got a free, live, unfiltered stand-up show right in your feed. Many humor pros have used the medium to reignite their careers and reach new fans.But is Twitter humor different from "traditional" humor? And what happens when the television, publishing, and performance industries are set aside in favor of direct "social" comedy? We spoke with some hilarious tweeters to get their take on these trends, and on what it means to get a laugh in the digital age.
The One-Liner Renaissance
You've only got 140 characters to fit the setup, punchline, and some breathing room for retweets. Depending on your comedic style, Twitter might be the perfect medium, or your greatest challenge. In either case, the cap has propagated a culture of "one-liners" or "riffs," and the funniest of the Twitterati have been hitting them home for some time."The people that get a lot of play [on the funniest Twitterers lists] are people who keep it really simple," said comedian and writer
Paul F. Tompkins, who hosted VH1's
Best Week Ever and tweets regularly in between stand-up gigs. "In that arena, it's so digestible. You get it: This is a joke.""Even the longest stories in your act should be succinct," said stand-up comedian and writer
Steve Hofstetter. "Twitter's focus on the economy of words is a good thing."For pros who have been joking in other media, it takes some work to adapt. "I enjoy the challenge of,
How can I sound like me in 140 characters?" said Tompkins.The writers and performers of the 90s cult comedy TV show
Mystery Science Theater 3000 have found Twitter to be the perfect channel for their brand of one-liner comedy. Their more recent venture,
RiffTrax, is their digital way of talking back to bad movies, and their promotion is highly social."We have been working in the quip business for quite a while, so [Twitter] works well for us," said
Michael J. Nelson of RiffTrax. "But I think it's allowed people to find their comedic 'voices' in an environment somewhat safer than a bar. Fewer Piña Coladas being blended during your punchlines. Less flying food.""It's amazing how much people love delivering one-liners. It's like crack," said
Kevin Murphy of RiffTrax. "You could say it's cultivated a more literary form of one-liner. Hasn't cut down on the volume of dick jokes, though.""It's not surprising that a big share of riffs we put into a RiffTrax movie are 140 characters or less. WE HAVE BEEN TRAINING ALL OUR LIVES FOR THIS," Murphy added with capitalized emphasis in an e-mail interview.The flip side is, there's no filter. The publishers, editors and producers through which we have traditionally gotten our comedy don't exist on Twitter. So you get the good with the bad."Good: There's a lot of genuine wit out there, from many different and unexpected quarters," said
Bill Corbett, the third comic brain behind RiffTrax. "Bad: The Tweet-groaners that are trying way too hard, and
still seem too long at 140 characters. So it's a renaissance just like the actual Renaissance: Amazing art, but with occasional outbreaks of bubonic plague."
Social Performance
Funny, audience-building tweeters, as well as established Twitter-savvy celebs can click a button and send laughs out to hundreds, even thousands of fans. There's no gig to arrange, book to publish, or episode to shoot. It's become a very direct and personal form of comedy for many writers."I think the 'publish yourself, whenever you want!' aspect of Twitter greatly appeals to professional writers and comedians," said Corbett. "Most of us have the faith, and perhaps the arrogance, to believe that we are almost always worth hearing or reading. Most of us are mistaken, of course," he added, including himself in this category. "The idea of playing whenever you want to an ever-waiting audience is rather addictive."Tompkins views it as a much more social experience than performing via traditional channels. "I end up thinking of it in way more intimate terms because people are talking to me directly when [they] respond to what I've written. I don't think of it as 50,000+ people expectantly looking at me," he said. "It just feels to me like I'm another person on Twitter. I read other people's stuff, so it's like, 'Here's my contribution to what everybody's talking about.'"The real game-changer for performers seems to be in the dialogue. "One of the things that's been so great is to find out that my fans are funny. The people that like me are actually funny people themselves," said Tompkins. "That's so satisfying and so flattering. It's like, 'Wow, smart, funny people like what I do.'"But Hofstetter has reservations about how much Twitter is impacting traditional comic reach. "Well, most comedians aren't playing to thousands on [Twitter]. I don't think it's changing the industry, as it's
exceedingly rare for someone to get famous [from] Twitter. Typically, the famous people have a big audience and the non-famous people do not."
The Perfect Marketing Channel
Plenty of businesses look for ways to be fun or personal on social networks in order to build a market for their products. For many tweeting comedians, the medium
is the message, and snagging "LOLs" on Twitter is both an art and a marketing strategy."It's changed my way of looking at promotion, really," said Tompkins. "How do I boil down my essence in this very limited amount of space to give people an idea of me and the way that I'm funny to maximum effect? It's been an enormous boon for my career."Tompkins noted that
FacebookFacebook
Groups come in handy as well for organizing attendees at his live performances. When enough fans commit to a show in a particular city, he'll book it and perform for them. Twitter is a way to drive people back to the Facebook Groups, and get the word out about committed performance dates."There's always conjecture with social networks about 'how long is it going to last,' and 'people are done with that one, now they're on to this one.' For people like me, it's not all one or the other. It's using all of them in conjunction with one another to cover all your bases. And it's fairly easy to do," Tompkins said.In addition to their in-studio work, the RiffTrax crew also perform "
live riffs" on movies which are simulcasted to theaters nationwide. Much of their Twitter engagement -- which includes contests, giveaways, etc. -- revolves around these events, and the performers tend to get the most play when tweeting with fans from their personal accounts."I don't have huge numbers of followers, but I suspect a large percentage of those I do have actually care, at least a little bit," said Nelson. "So people are happy to hear when we have events coming up.""We announce to our tweeps, and then they spread the word," Murphy added. "People link up, meet up at events, tell each other about the surprise live events we've been known to do. It's a hell of a lot more fun and exciting for people than looking at an ad."Corbett concurred. "I wouldn't expect people to follow or enjoy a constant commercial, but I think it's fine to promote your work in the context of a mostly for-fun account. Mike, Kevin and I
all seem to follow that pattern, actually, whereas the
RiffTrax account is mostly business."But the line between performance and promotion can be a delicate one."I have people unfollow me, and they're like, 'It's too much self-promotion, I'm just here for the comedy, so I'm unfollowing you,'" said Tompkins. "So what you're saying to me is, 'Hey, you're not giving me enough comedy
for free, so I'm bailing on you.'""[T]he relative anonymity allows people to heckle you and run," Nelson added.For comic tweeters, it's about finding the right balance. "We never really stay too serious in any of the four accounts. That would be just plain weird, given what we do," said Corbett.
The Culture of Riff
One trend that has arisen in snarkier Twitter circles is the habit of talking back to popular culture in real-time. Tweeters riff on live television, sports, and the news regularly. And depending on who you follow, the results can be hilarious."Oh, I love it," said Tompkins. "I think of Oscar night for something like that. To see a bunch of funny people all making comments in real-time as this thing's happening -- that's like a gigantic party with the funniest people you could imagine. It's great.""It has made live television relevant as fodder, I suppose. Though I've worked in TV, I'm delighted to see anything that makes it less passive and brain-deadening," said Corbett. "Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of a culture where everyone riffs everything all the time. It could get so self-referential that the universe swallows itself. On the more positive side, people seem happy when they're creative and interacting with each other, especially for some laughs. It's hard to think of that as all bad.""[I]t gives the audience a voice of their own," added Murphy. "And that's really damn cool."
The "LOL" vs. Real Live Laughter
For the average humor-tweeter who doesn't have access to a comedy club stage or her own television show, 140-character accolades will have to suffice. But for the current generation of pros who cut their teeth on stage and screen, a retweet or an "LOL" is nice, but not quite the same as the real thing."It's great to hear that people are laughing and retweeting, but a laugh from an audience is something special -- sort of a neutron star of delight," said Murphy."Nothing beats a real, live laugh for maximum joy in the moment, unless that laugh is from a mad scientist bent on world domination. Then it's a little awkward," Corbett added.But all the comics we spoke to noted that the retweet has become something special for humorists -- something that doesn't have an exact real-world equivalent."What's really gratifying to me is when people pass on the things that I've written," said Tompkins. "I'm really flattered that people are passing my 'message of comedy' along.""A retweet is more gratifying than a laugh," Hofstetter added. "It's the equivalent of someone re-telling one of your jokes after a show. And not botching it."Time will tell if comics who start out in social media (on Twitter, blogs, and the like) will ever be able to reach the mainstream audiences that their predecessors did through television, film and print. We've already seen
some crossover, and we expect more of it as newer artists use social media as a starting point, rather than a supplementary channel. For the moment though, entertainment, like all industries, straddles the line as it sorts out its digital future.To wit, Tompkins added, "As much as I love the
InternetInternet, nothing beats real life."
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