Ronny Chieng on the true job of comedians

Chieng: "The measure of good comedy is when you’re saying something unique that’s hilarious."

“The true job of comedians these days as professionals is to not overreact to other people overreacting.”
-Ronny Chieng

Interview with Ronny Chieng. He discusses what makes a bit hack vs. something more elevated:

Good comics have their own internal barometer of a joke that they write and they go, “This is just hack.” Then they know when they’re writing a joke where it’s like, “This is more satirical, this is more elevated. This is the voice I aspire to. These are the kind of jokes and this is the kind of material I aspire to write.”

Sometimes I get lucky. I have a bit that I really enjoy and I’m like, “Man, I hope all my bits could be like this.” I don’t think I’m there yet. I think it’s very much an internal barometer. Standup comedy and being a correspondent, almost two different skill sets. But standup comedy, there is an element of audience response to it. So you can tell when you’re saying something that is getting a good response, but it’s also because of your internal barometer. You know it’s not a hack-y joke, it’s kind of elevated, you’re saying something unique. I think that’s the measure of good comedy is when you’re saying something unique that’s hilarious.

So I think everything I do, if I push towards those two things, which is being unique and hilarious, I can feel myself get better. So that’s my metric, I think, for being good at comedy.

Chieng also says, “The true job of comedians these days as professionals is to not overreact to other people overreacting.”

That reminds me of something Anthony Jeselnik once said:

“Complaining in comedy is the worst. It’s uncool. I wanted to be cool” — and even sees it as an aesthetic asset. “P.C. culture is a good thing, and I could not do what I do without it,” he said.

“I think that’s the measure of good comedy is when you’re saying something unique that’s hilarious.”
-Ronny Chieng