John welcomes Jesse David Fox (Comedy Book, Good One) and Greg Iwinski (Last Week Tonight, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) to “explain the joke” and discuss how comedy works.

They explore everything from harnessing your comedic voice, building a career in comedy, the importance of diversity in late night, to fundamental questions about the art form: How do jokes work? Is laughter always the primary goal of a comedy? Do you need to put your work online? How has the algorithm changed our consumption of comedy? And where does comedy go from here?

In our bonus segment for premium members, Greg, Jesse and John talk about their shared love for The Simpsons. What makes it so funny, and how has it shaped a generation of comedy nerds?

Links:

• Greg Iwinski on Twitter and Instagram
• Jesse David Fox on Instagram and Twitter
• Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture–and the Magic That Makes It Work by Jesse David Fox
• Good One: Podcast About Jokes by Jesse David Fox
• Julia on MAX
• The Great Stewardess Rebellion by Nell McShane Wulfhart
• Everything You Want (ft. MUNA) – Matt Rogers, from his album Have You Heard of Christmas?
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
• John August on Threads, Instagram and Twitter
• John on Mastodon
• Outro by Jonathan Petkau (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at [email protected]

You can download the episode here.