Laughing in a Void

            I don’t know if you have seen it or if you even care, but Saturday Night Live has recently been airing “at home” episodes. It has been an interesting couple of episodes. They do their sketches by either recording themselves alone or recording zoom calls/facetimes and using that to adapt to the new environment.

            The intriguing part of these episodes is the lack of audience. There is something strange about performing comedy to an audience that does not exist. The sketches do okay because they the sketch format is not that dependent on the audience, the comedic music videos do the best, but the Weekend Update portion of the show is where the show loses some of its comedic sensibilities. This is because Weekend Update is essentially stand-up comedy and thus thrives the best in the presence of a live audience. A live audience adds a lot of things to comedy performance. They let you know when the jokes are working, how long to pause, they determine a joke’s best timing, the contagious laughter effect discussed in class plays its part, and the interplay between the performer an audience member is immeasurable and indescribably important to a successful comedy routine.

            In order for a joke to be successful, there has to be an audience and that is why I think the Weekend Update Segment is so strange. They are telling jokes to a void and Michael Che even commented on how strange it was. For a message to be delivered, there needs to a receiver; this fact is amplified when telling a joke. The best comedy is performed with an engaged audience.