An Ode to the Running Joke

I've done shows in every genre out there, be they drama, horror, even an educational film about teachers who make prejudiced preconceptions. I could probably argue, however, that I'm most in my element with comedy. Apart from prat falls, my favorite element of comedy is the running joke.

I believe that repetition can be an ingredient for a huge number of laughs. The old formula I remember was:
1. Do it until somebody laughs
2. Keep doing it
3. Do it until it's funny again
It has to be the right kind of joke or else it just falls flat and becomes annoying. I was thinking about the topic during my rehearsal tonight and I came up with a list of my top five running jokes, so here they are. Feel free to disagree and state your case in the comments.

5. The knee Clutch - Family Guy

Seth McFarlane does not always make me laugh, especially as Family Guy grows older and seems to spiral further and further away from any type of sense, but the first time I saw this gag I laughed for a long time. I stopped watching around season six, but I saw it revisited a number of times, and I believe they hit the peak of this joke in the second star wars spoof they made, in which an Imperial Walker acts out the knee clutch.

4. Tobias' Sexual Orientation - Arrested Development

Arrested Development is possibly the funniest tv show ever made, and it is a damn travesty that it ever went off the air. One of the jokes that didn't stop being funny for the entire run, was Tobias trying to fight off everyone's suspicion of his true sexual orientation. The peak for this joke for me, is the episode when Michael tells him to take a tape recorder around and listen to the things he's saying and we got a load of out of context snippets that even make Tobias cringe. I know it has staying power, because every time I post about it on facebook, there will end up being 20 comments of A.D. quotes, usually from Tobias.

3. The Broken Step - Modern Family

Phil is my favorite character on Modern Family. He nails comedic timing and because of his ability, he lands some of the funniest physical comedy gags I've ever seen. My favorite involves the broken step on the family stairway that he continually trips on and then comments under his breath that he needs to fix it. It gets a laugh out of me every time, especially when I can see it coming.

 2. The Slap Bet - How I Met Your Mother

In one of the first seasons of How I met Your Mother, they set up a slap bet between Barney and Marshall. (Spoiler Alert) Marshall wins, and is rewarded 5 slaps to be given out at any time. The first two were used up pretty quickly, but since then, the shows writers have rewarded faithful viewers with a slap at different times throughout the run, seemingly out of nowhere. My personal favorite (spoiler alert) was the episode when Barney put on his horrible one man show, and right when you can't take it any longer, Marshall walks up and slaps him, declaring another of his slaps to be complete. Top notch.

1. Has anyone in this family ever seen a chicken - Arrested Development

If you watch this show, you probably agree with me. The portrayal of chickens by this family is a sin against chickens, and it makes me laugh every single time. It is such a ridiculous joke on paper: no one in their family does a good chicken impression, but they all think they do. Make it funny. Do a dance. By God, they made it funny. This particular joke had one of the best final payoffs, in which everyone (except Job) does their horrible chicken impression at the same time, creating an amazing tableau of physical comedy that every aspiring comedic actor should be forced to study.

The Joy of Real Back Pain

Instead of explaining why I started this blog, I'm just going to jump on in and begin posting. Hopefully the way the posts weave together will speak for themselves and this blog will not need an explanation.

I recently became unemployed. When I found out it was going to happen, I panicked. Thoughts of "how will I get by, what am I going to do now, I'm kind of hungry I wonder if there's any cheese left" all ran through my brain at a frightening pace.

Then something wonderful happened. A little switch in my brain moved from "panic" to "easy there fella." I calmed down and tried to look at the positive of the situation. Life in essence shook up my etch-a-sketch and handed it back to me. How many chances does one get to reset one's life and maybe take a different path?

One of the things I've picked up to fill my time (and the real focus of this post) is working crew for the Skagit Valley College production of "Into the Woods." For anyone who may not be "theatre savvy," many set pieces you might see during a show are run by a "fly" system. To simplify it, these different pieces are attached to ropes which line up offstage and need to be pulled in and out of different scenes at different times. This is my job for the show. I heave the mighty lines of rope and change the very world in which the production takes place.

Ok that might be over-dramatizing it, but it's an important piece of the theatre formula and one I had up until now had no experience with. Being an actor and taking center stage you sometimes forget the joy of real back pain that comes from a hard job done well. Taking a support role to help make other people shine is good for one's chi. I still feel the ache to walk out onstage because that's where my true passion lies, but I'm glad for this opportunity to play an important support role in the process, and it never would have happened if I had still been employed.


Sometimes I question the universe and its lack of sense (remember the pogo ball?) but for the time being, I'm ok with taking a couple side roads.