Ep. 101 - The Future of Comedy with Aaron Weber

How stand-up comedy is changing now and in the future 🎭

In this episode, stand up comic Aaron Weber joins Mattimore to discuss what it’s like to be a comedian in the year 2020, what makes a joke funny, the perils of cancel culture, limitations to free speech, the value that comedy brings to society, and how comedy is likely to evolve in the future...

Broad Topics:

• What is your go-to process for coming up with jokes?
• What makes something funny? The science and art of comedy
• 6 dimensions of humor: naughty, clever, cute, bizarre, mean, relatable
• Value that comedy brings to society: relief, social bonding, deeper understanding
• Are people more easily offended now than they used to be?
• Is it true 30% of people have no sense of humor?
• The pros and cons of cancel culture
• Has cancel culture gone too far?
• Twitter (and Facebook) are not real life
• Comedy as a bastion of free speech
• How the profession is changing

Rapid Fire Questions:

• What advice would you give to rising comedians?
• Will humans still be around 1,000 years from now?
• Will The United States still be United 100 years from now?
• What, in your view, is the single biggest threat to human civilization?
• What technological advancement are you most excited about humanity achieving in the future?
• Will machines become smarter than the average person, i.e. artificial general intelligence, by 2050?
• Will consciousness emerge in machines once they’ve reached a sufficient level of complex intelligence?
• If you were elected president, what would you do on day 1?
• Should scientists bring back the T-Rex?

Future Scenarios:

• Worst Case Scenario
• Best Case Scenario
• Most Likely Scenario

Thanks for tuning in 🔭

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