COMPREHENSIVE INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
The following is an editorial piece written and composed by COMPREHENSIVE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATE Leo Baum. In the text, composed for New York University, Baum, in monologue, discusses the appliances and instruments necessary for comedic composition.
THE ULTIMATE FRAME-WORK OF COMEDY UTILIZING A NEWLY INVENTED SEMI-ABSTRACT PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT WITH A STRONG EMPHASIS AND FOCUS ON JEWISH COMEDIAN LARRY DAVID (WRITTEN).
It Can Be Understood
The discussion of philosophy in nearly any context can often, without the need for much further examination, be recognized as completely and definitely pretentious. Yet there exist the types who engage in such discussion regularly, usually with each other, occasionally with a stranger, and more occasionally to God, or more accurately their own complex of a higher-power-structure. They, in their twice pleated pants—or more exactly, trousers—might debate with a great passion, over crucial moral minutiae.
In spite of the above, an amateur philosophy will here be individually scrutinized—ideally, though unsuccessfully, unpretentiously—with such conveyance on the subject of the composition of accomplishment.
Catch-phrases involving “believing” and “achieving” have successfully captured a segment of the overall system, yet the other pieces here abridged are still required for the system to function in any proportion. There is in fact a desire to understand the structure of attaining achievement, and discussion has surely ensued in several locations at several times, though probably most commonly over espresso served in small cups in the mid-morning or after mid-night.
Divulged here is a working theory regarding the methodology of accomplishment, characterized by a recurring procedure that can accurately classify the less scientific parts of a narrative into distinct segments here determined to be necessary for ultimate accomplishment. The cycle is applicable in all cases, professions, and situations, though an intense focus on the medium of Comedy, with an even greater sub-focus on stand-up comedy, provides circumstances resembling a case study for the purposes of communicating the concept practically.
The Accomplishment Frame-Work
This formulaic structure, in combination and conjunction with the needed and necessary comic passion, provides the regiment and catalyst respectively necessary for the incubation of a talented and able comedian. The following is an explanation/description of a notion newly named The Accomplishment Frame-Work.
Confidence
Society and its members today idolize and desire confidence. For these purposes, the definition of confidence relates to an internal understanding of a personal capability, capacity, and ability, allowing for the execution of a task or concept. To believe in one’s self is the most common, most diluted, and most screen-printed version of this definition, though such simplicity and reduction can make it more-so unattainable; a great deal more than self-belief is required for success, mastery, and achievement. Large quantities of confidence are not universally possessed, though confidence in some form is, as it is in fact necessary for any decisive action. It can be found that those often classified as confident achieve some success–usually in terms of notoriety and monetary achievement—though this notion is rather incomplete and suggests a lack of comprehensive deliberation.
Opinion
Opinion will here be defined as an originally composed, intrinsically and/or through inspiration, concept, idea, or preference. Opinion is not here understood as a mere afore-heard repeated idea or concept, but instead must possess some quality of originality or variation. It is crucial to understand this is a more narrow definition, as a person’s partiality to a particular item might not be so profound as to classify it as opinion.
All people, persons, etc. are capable of conceiving opinion; yet, most often, a person is inclined not to draw for themselves a personal judgment, but rather to utilize pre-existing perspectives to fill such a space. These circumstances, being the norm, give a sizable advantage to those with frequent, or truly any, opinions as are here defined, as the creation of any novel conception is by definition more innovative than textbook redundancy.
Therefore, the comedian who by nature of their own profession requires the development of opinion in the plural must be capable of consistently generating, through the preferred method, conceptual content to be eventually massaged and pressed into the mold of comedy.
Articulation
An element of the cause of why many of the clever and complex remain unknown correlates directly to the inability of the proprietor to properly articulate. Articulation will here be defined as the adequate expression of a conceived opinion in any form or medium.
Often due to limited vocabulary or non-specificity in speech, the non-comedian cannot consistently articulate their thoughts, be them so or not-so opinions, with the utmost grace and precision. Conversations overheard can unsurprisingly be ridiculed, though it is not the fault of the non-comedian for lacking possession of a superior articulatory capacity. The comedian must, for the sake of the artform, be able to effectively relay their opinion to their audience using the proper vocabulary, inflections, and physical cues—if the given medium is stand-up— allowing the opinion to present clearly and successfully. In written comedy, proper word choice, syntax, and organization are all crucial for informational delivery. Other mediums have corresponding qualities which are similarly compulsory for adept articulation. The most effective articulation allows the comedian to reflect the audience through a projection of themselves, with their own thoughts inspiring corresponding thoughts with-in and through- the audience.
Validation
Due to a cycle’s cyclical and circular form, the beginning and end points of said cycle can become blurry and unclear, creating difficulty in determining from which place the examination of such a cycle should be originated. Validation can be understood as the ultimate of the four components of the Accomplishment Frame-Work, as it is the recognition of the activity and completion of the former three aspects, though it can also be acknowledged as the first of the four, being necessary for the formation of Confidence, the portion occurring directly after.
Validation, here, will be defined as the recognition by some force or body of an expressed opinion as that of quality, substance, or correctness. Confidence is the manifestation of internalized validation, and requires such as a prerequisite. This is the only of the four aspects which can involve, and usually must involve, external action separate from what the individual is capable of providing.
In stand-up comedy, validation is instantaneously provided by the audience, characterized by a subsequent laughter. In other forms of comedy, though, validation is shaped analogously differently depending on context and situation.
Concept
This now defined cycle, this recurring series of Confidence, Opinion, Articulation, and Validation are the fundamental components which allow for intellectual production. Through this process, the human being is able to create, and through creation fuel future ventures and undertakings. This process is highly mechanical within a non-mechanical apparently artistic format, and through this effectively anatomical examination, the means by which a person finds themself able to labor in their own personalized field is thoroughly documented.
Mediums like stand-up comedy and improvisational comedy so clearly exemplify and emulate this system as it functions. However, unlike in other areas, the frequency at which the cycle is completed is far more rapid and intense. The stand-up must approach the performance with some amount of left-over residual confidence, possibly generated through validation at past performances, or otherwise from some other place leaving them similarly recognized and affirmed. Once the comedian is officially the dominant shareholder of the room’s attention, the cycle is engaged, now at several revolutions per minute.
The stand-up, or improviser, articulates, based on their existing confidence, an opinion which they feel capable of presenting due to former validation. If the audience decides that they recognize this opinion as effectively comedic, they will then validate the opinion through varying degrees and amounts of laughter.
But what differentiates the comedian from the rest of collected society is the ability to use and ab-use this system at a higher level, transforming the system using the generated momentum in earlier repetitions of the cycle. The comedian develops the ability to cycle at such an spectacular pace, potentially through a preexisting or developed ego, that they can then self-validate themselves, self-determining the comedy based on this expedited system’s efficacy.
Jerry Seinfeld
Determining comic ability through monetary achievement is most definitely an effective method of measurement, yet there is in fact one sole comedian who has managed a prosperous reputation now synonymous with comedy in several forms. The great Jerry Seinfeld may be considered comedy’s president, though he occasionally acts as a friendly ambassador. In a number, a small number, of interviews and documentaries, Seinfeld has given the onlooker a peer, a semi-partial glance, into his methodology and technique for crafting comedy as it resonates with him. He describes a drive for a certain meticulous perfection in composing jokes, adjusting minor phrases, words, and syllables to more effectively emphasize the funny.
Seinfeld deals with his introduction to the construction of the Accomplishment Frame-Work, explaining, “When I began, when I first stepped on stage as a comedian, I really had no idea if I was funny or not. I mean none. I wanted to be funny, but I didn't know if I had any talent at all, any different from anybody else, that people should be even listening to me. I had zero self-awareness of having any ability in the comedic arts—zero—so to get up and just talk into a microphone, I felt so insane and outrageous that I would think this of myself; because the first thing you have to think is people should listen to me, that's the first thought you have to have, and I really didn't have much confidence in that” (Seinfeld). Acknowledging the apparent absurdity of stand-up conceptually, mostly for the requirement of a sizable ego, Seinfeld describes a selection of his initial thoughts while considering performing. Without a reservoir of confidence, the ability to perform is debilitated, with at least some sense of ability needed for a prospective comedian to even contemplate engagement. He, Seinfeld, attained confidence through repetition and revision, involving his delivery.
Seinfeld addresses the cycle—of Confidence, Opinion, Articulation and Validation—in his own vernacular, highlighting this heightened version as it applies to stand-up. He believes that, “there's no other art [other than comedy] of any kind so completely, so closely, connected to the recipients of the art and the artist himself. There's nothing you can name, singing, poetry, painting, music…When you say something, and the laugh is right there, you know [if it was funny] just a second after you say it, a fraction of a second” (Seinfeld). Only comedy, according to Seinfeld, functions under these magnified circumstances; in other fields, “everybody else makes things…and then it goes out there through a medium,” a concept which, in relation to stand-up, is foreign and separate. Seinfeld recognized the constant repetition of the Accomplishment Frame-Work present and mandatory in material of any decent quality, and through his own repetition has come to essentially master the practice and govern the industry.
The comedian must be sufficiently impassioned for the cycle itself to function as it should and as it does. The separating factor which alienates the comedian from the public is nothing more than this obsessive quality which forces them to re-engage with the Accomplishment Frame-Work in a never-breaking, unceasing, way. Though the Accomplishment Frame-Work can be somewhat applied to the non-comedian, without this personal comic preoccupation, the cycle advances so slowly and inefficiently that to chart its progress would be to let the odometer remain as it was manufactured.
Larry David
Larry David illustrates the prominence of the Accomplishment Frame-Work as it applied to his career. Initially a stand-up, Larry discovered the components which he found to be needed for comedic success. A thorough examination of Larry David’s early career, with detail drawn from David’s own retrospection, allows for an accurate and canonical presentation of his comic maturation as he understood it.
David’s eventual pursuit of stand-up was not, by his own account, evident in his younger youth. Not necessarily unemotive, but still un-obnoxious, he was not notoriously funny or notable comically throughout grammar school. Yet once in attendance at The University Of Maryland, David found himself inundated in a comedic validation, as he stated when interviewed, “and then for some reason I went away to school, and I started to make new friends and they started laughing at me. I was kind of shocked, you know? I said that's kind of cool these people…I guess I'm funny” (David). David’s formerly unrecognized comic ability is here validated by his collegiate peers, stimulating and powering the engine found in the Accomplishment Frame-Work, allowing him to now consider the possibility of engaging in stand-up comedy. This initial validation therefore equipped David with the wherewithal to continue speaking and generating humorously.
Throughout his career, as is present in many separate, though similar, instances, Larry David has demonstrated a harsh and nearly absolute conviction and devotion to his material. He often threatened to leave, quit, and exit lucrative show-business positions for the sake of the integrity of his work. Now iconically—as several talk-show hosts have prompted begrudging retellings—while a writer on Saturday Night Live, David effectively quit the show after receiving little attention for his several weekly sketch submissions. Subsequently, having calculated the dollar amount he had lost himself, and after having consulted actual neighbor Kenny Kramer, David decided to return to work the following day, disregarding his own prior quitting. Years afterwards, as the co-creator of Seinfeld, Larry also threatened leaving on several additional occasions. He was nervous he wouldn’t be able to continuously generate profound comedic episodes, and concurrently, once brilliant comedy was written, he was insistent in its production and development. With regards to the pivotal episode of the series, euphemistically entitled The Contest, Larry had “built [him]self up into it into such a state that [he] was prepared to leave the show if they if they didn't [produce the episode]” (David). His nearly unalterable confidence supplies him with the needed belief in his opinion—articulated in the form of a television script—imparting on Larry an absolutist complex in which either his material is accepted or he leaves completely.
To make a repeated point even more so redundant, though simultaneously so much more plain and clear, for Larry himself, the understanding of comedy did in fact take several thankless attempts before he was able to actually enjoy the act of stand-up, insisting that he experienced fulfillment “not the first three times [but] the fourth time I got that because I wrote something that really went over, and that's that's when I got that feeling. It felt like ‘okay, this is my career now. This is what I’m going to be’” (David). Only after a fourth trial of stand-up did Larry receive any relevant communal validation, providing the confidence needed to propel him into comic commitment.
Of the components of the described system, David is most well-known in pop-culture for his decisive and self-indulgent opinions. Notable for his television character sharing his name, features, and biography, the public often confuses the character with the comedian. David finds himself inspired comically while analyzing and acting in regular living, taking initiative in collecting comic opinions in a pocket-capable notebook. He then has a, “bigger notebooks that [he] transfer[s] that idea that [he] wrote in the little notebook into [so then he has] a big notebook filled with ideas” (David). Larry’s specific ability to convey his opinions, usually of dismay and disdain as have become his trademark, occupies a large portion of his own distinctive talent as a comedian. He also utilizes devices beyond that of simple speech, pulling on Yiddish noises and sounds while becoming unreasonably aggravated by the mundane. He understands the virtue in originality, explaining that the “key is you want ideas that you feel like nobody else is going to think of” (David). Especially, Larry’s harsh judgment and philosophy have matriculated as his most recognizable qualities, serving as the fodder for the majority of his professional work, in addition to expression in public appearance and interview. His ability to conceive in a manner and of conviction so prominently individualistic is a great talent and asset, contributing ultimately to his overall comedic ability.
Skills in compelling expression are clearly essential to the comedian, as a fascinated engagement on the part of the audience is required for an effective set. Larry initially found, practiced, and sharpened his vocalization with his peers while in college, as he says, “I started to date is what happened, and I was such an unbelievable loser that I would go on a date and come back to the dorm, and everybody was interested in what happened on my date. So I would sit there and talk about the date you know and that seemed to make people laugh [Laughter] it was pretty funny” (David). Larry was able to successfully verbalize the comedy of his experience in such a way that noticeably inspired laughter from those around him. His expertise in articulation so greatly enhances his already un-confusable opinion, and therefore his internally-complimentary skillset fashions the Accomplishment Frame-Work to his undoubted strategic humor-driven advantage.
And through the articulation of his own original opinion, Larry is able to create intimate connective relationships with his audience, explaining that “people really can relate to [the material] because it comes from a place inside that that somebody else is expressing” (David). His aptitude for articulating not only his own opinions, but conveying them in such a manner that produces a significant resonance with the audience.
Larry, though, in his self-perpetuated comic expertise, expresses his rationalization of his own material, saying, “to tell you the truth, and I hope it doesn't sound pretentious, I’m just writing for myself, so I’m just trying to make myself laugh. Honestly, that's all I’m doing. and I figure if I’m making, if I’m laughing, maybe somebody else will laugh” (David). He, at this point but also earlier in his career, became so well versed in the intricacy of the Accomplishment Frame-Work that he found himself capable of exercising and utilizing without the need for audience validation. This has given Larry the opportunity to create a more specified comedy, entrusting himself with the responsibility of all required entertainment positions. The comedian, here Larry David, can cycle through the cycle so quickly that it effectively becomes a system of self-validation, now un-depending and independent of outside external alternate popular opinion.
Thus Therefore
The prominence and prevalence of the Accomplishment Frame-Work as a structure not only for stand-up comedy, but for comedy as it exists in all forms and mediums is most definitely evident and present in the life and career of several comedians, but specifically and now in Larry David. The complex of Confidence, Opinion, Articulation and Validation provide a rational and mostly concrete formula which can elasticize and adapt as necessary to prove applicable.
This system functions like an engine, with revolutions generating the power needed for motion, motility, mobility and movement. This motor, or rather, motorized-cycle, or for the sake of a more concise quality, motor-cycle, induces comedy in a beautiful, mechanical, abstract, scientific, and artistic way.
Works Cited
Boettcher, Steven J. Interview with Jerry Seinfeld. Pioneers of Television. October 9th 2021.
Bonfiglio, Michael. 2017. Jerry Before Seinfeld. Columbus 81 Productions, Embassy Row.
Interview with Larry David. Curb Your Extras: New York Times Interview with Larry David.
Interview with Jerry Seinfeld. How To Write A Joke. The New York Times. December 12th,