Yeah, so man, I could talk about comedy all day, because I’m so endlessly fascinated by it. I’m convinced that comedy is rhythm. It’s all rhythm. It’s more akin to poetry and music than anything else, which is why I play music in part when I write it. And if you don’t believe it’s rhythm, if you believe comedy is something that’s more intellectual and received intellectually, then I would give you this test which is watch a stand-up comic tell a joke like a George Carlin or a Richard Pryor and they have this big build up.
And when they hit the punch line, they miss a word. But then they restate the word. Joke’s ruined. Well it shouldn’t be ruined because he’s going to be still giving you the idea. You got it a quarter of a second later, but no, it’s ruined. So what’s that like? Well that would be like a guy playing the piano who misses the final note. Even if he hits the right note after, it’s ruined.
That’s what it is. That to me proves it is rhythm. It’s all rhythm. So when I’m — so whether you’re a standup comic or you’re a cartoonist or you’re a graphic novel person who’s trying to make people laugh, it is all the same thing. So when I don’t write well, which is often, I come home to my wife and I don’t say, oh I couldn’t think of anything. I say I couldn’t hear anything. Because it’s a rhythm. You hear it. I don’t know how to describe it.
I can watch a commercial — I could read somebody else’s strip or watch a commercial and hear a joke and go oh, that word, they could have said that word with one syllable. It would have worked so much better. Or they didn’t need that other word at the end or they — if you’re writing a funny line, the operative word should come last. You don’t want it second to last or third to the last because then the rest of the words just trail. So that’s all rhythm.
For me it’s instinctual when I write on the days that it works. On the days where it doesn’t work, I have to figure it out intellectually, like oh I think this is something that’s funny. But I’m not hearing it, so yeah, comedy is all rhythm and you’re just trying to get into that groove. And yeah, I’m so fascinated by this topic because it really — and I wish everybody could experience it. The biggest high for me ever on earth is when it’s just rolling.
And it’s then when I understand what I think I’ve heard other writers and artists much greater than me talk about which is that you’re more of a discoverer than a creator. It’s just formed. It’s just given to you. And when you’re open it just comes through you. You know what I mean? I don’t know if that sounds too weird or arrogant. I don’t mean it to be either of those things.
When I see a strip and it’s funny, I’m so pleased because I feel like I’m the first person who got to see it. I don’t see myself as the creator so much. I see myself as — because it comes out formed. The best stuff you do comes out formed. It’s really odd. I don’t know if you tap into some rhythm or I don’t know if an artist’s skill is just being — having the receptors.
Maybe we’re all the same, but an artist is more attuned to receiving whatever that is, right? I think the Greeks, like Plato and forms, right? Isn’t that what that is? So like the Pieta exists in an even more perfect form in this other world and daVinci just brought you the closest we could get to it. You know what I mean? It’s just a — I know it’s right because I know when it comes out, you know? Like I had nothing to do with it. I just watched it. I really just watched it.
If I had any skill, it was knowing to step aside and let it happen, right? I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant. I don’t mean it to sound like I’m especially skilled. I don’t think I am. I’m just fascinated by how creativity occurs, you know?