Steve Martin on the different kinds of laughter
Here's why he decided to move away from “normal” joke structures.
Studying philosophy in college, Steve Martin says he learned you can question anything.
"So I turned it on my little comedy act, thinking, 'What could I change, what would be different, what would be original, what would be new?' And I realized that comedians of the day were operating on jokes and punch lines.
"The moment you say the punch line, the audience either laughs sincerely or they laugh automatically or they don't laugh. The thing that bothered me was that automatic laugh. I said, that's not real laughter. What if I could get real laughter, like the kind you have at home or with your friends, where your sides are aching."
"That's a much stronger kind of laugh .... It worked. It helped me create something new."
On Howard Stern, Martin expanded on the different kinds of laughter and why he decided to move away from “normal” setup/punch joke structure: