There is no hack subject, only hack approaches

You can do a bit on airplanes or anything else. You just need to take an innovative approach that hasn't been heard 1,000 times before.

Louis CK has a famous bit on airplanes (everything is amazing and nobody is happy)…

…which started a conversation about hack standup topics where CK chimed in:

But I NEVER thought of [hack] subjects as bad to talk about. If you think any subject is hack, go to youtube and watch Jay leno's appearances on the old Letterman show. There are a ton of them and they're amazing. He was SO Fucking good and everything he talked about was "hack." He did airplane humor in at least five different segments on the same show. He never let it go. Just kept hammering and hammering at it, but with such beautiful precision, such energy – gorgeously worded bits. To frown on them because of the subject matter is to be a self-serving idiot.

My take: There is no hack subject, only hack approaches. You can do a bit on airplanes or anything else. You just need to take an innovative approach that hasn't been heard 1,000 times before. CK's bit is really about how we are spoiled and don't appreciate technological advances. Plane travel is just the example he's using, not the real point of what he's saying.

It’s not about the subject of the joke, it’s whether or not you take it somewhere unique. The joke needs to represent your point of view or how you see things or reveal a singular twist that no one else would give it. That becomes even more important if the subject you're talking about is a common one (e.g. dating apps, bl0w jobs, Biden’s age, etc.).

Here's Jay telling jokes about flying on Letterman back in the day:

Dave genuinely loves it which is cute. Crazy to think that Leno was actually one of the top comics working back then/inspirational to a whole generation of comedians. I think of him as one of those people who was secretly replaced by a robot at some point in the '90s, along with George Foreman, Nicolas Cage, and all the members of Aerosmith.

More YouTube search results for "jay leno at david letterman."

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