"Fish out of water" Comedy in Stand-up Writing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa0pWw2LwyI

The video is an excerpt from my Zoom Stand-up Comedy Writing Sessions for gigging comics - I run the course regularly throughout the year - and every class is different. Here are the latest dates.

Do you ever feel like a "fish out of water"? This is a great starting point for stand-up comedy material. Think about situations where you do not belong, lack the necessary skills, or feel completely out of place.

I did various temp jobs in my early twenties. Now, I’m a bit of an arty type who feels out of place around anything mechanical or practical. So, where would be a great workplace for me? The National Theatre maybe? A gallery or comedy club, even? No, I ended up at a panel beaters where they repair smashed up cars.

My job was to book cars in, drawing a circle around the dent or smash. I could just about draw the circle but the customers who were dropping off their beat up motors naturally thought I knew something about panel beating. They’d ask, "Will you be checking the frame alignment?" And I’d respond, “So at the time of the accident, you had a painting in the car?”

This starting point is incredibly fertile for comedy because it naturally generates strong, relatable emotions that can generate comic material such as discomfort, uncertainty, embarrassment, confusion, and awkwardness. (All of which I experienced in spades at the panel beaters).

Furthermore, it creates a stark contrast between you and all the people who are perfectly at home in that environment (contrasts being a fundamental driver of comedy). It also capitalises on the "outsider's eye," allowing you to observe and point out the absurdities of a situation that the "insiders" might take for granted.

Once the basic "fish out of water" premise is established, you can exaggerate the mistakes you made, your lack of comprehension, or the misunderstandings you had in order to heighten the comedic effect.

Here’s an example comes from UK based German comedian Henning Wehn, who frequently uses the "fish out of water" angle to explore the experience of living in the UK. In this routine, he describes the awkwardness of trying to navigate the unfamiliar, hyper-masculine social codes of a cafe full of British builders (see the video above):

"In that corner cafe, there were builders. Like proper builders with hard hats on. And they were drinking their cups of tea. And they were having proper man conversation. ‘How is it all going down the building site, mate?’ ‘Oh, don't ask. Some geezer hit the base frame the wrong way around on the generator. It's a fucking palaver.’ Or words along them lines. And then I thought to myself, I thought, ‘now hang on, Henning, hang on. Within this testosterone-filled atmosphere, is it still acceptable to ask for latte? Or is there too la-di-da? So, I had to say, ‘I want one of them, what you call them? Fucking latte.’"

The comic process illustrated by Henning Wen involves two main parts:

Observe and exaggerate

Come up with an absurd attempt to fit in

Firstly, he imitates the people he is amongst (builders), deliberately exaggerating their manner of speaking and getting it slightly wrong. So, he has this problem where he doesn't quite understand the social codes of the testosterone-filled atmosphere—specifically, questioning whether it's acceptable to ask for a "latte" or if it's "too la-di-da". He then finds a funny solution by asking for his drink using a swear word ("one of them what you call them fucking latte") to navigate the social dilemma.

Here is a quote from Greta Titelman where she describes the embarrassing ordeal of trying to navigate the ocean after lying to her keen-surfer boyfriend about her own surfing abilities:

"He's like, come in! And I'm [standing on the beach] like looking like his stepmom. I'm like, ‘sure, thanks, sweetie.’ So finally I'm like, ‘fuck it, I have to go in’, you know? So I slowly make my entrance like a Bond girl. Looking out. He doesn't see me. I get in the water, walking toward him. And then that annoying thing happens where the sand just falls off. And then without your consent, you're fully submerged in the fucking ocean.… And I'm not one of those women that looks hot when I get wet. I become Christopher Walken. So I'm treading wet, neck strained, fully Christopher Walken approaching him. And right when I get close enough to what I think will be his big fucking hands grabbing my ass and then we can just get on with the day, a wave comes and crashes upon me. Now we're in the Pacific, okay? We're at a California beach. We're in Laguna. This wave is tossing my ass to shore like I'm a fucking taquito. Rolls me up. I'm like a sandy churro.”

This excerpt is a masterclass in utilising the "fish out of water" angle to generate comedy. Again, the comedy comes from her attempts to fit into this setting, this time really extending that into a whole sequence. Here Titelman is figuratively and almost literally a "fish out of water." Here's a video where I break down this story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lzNyPw5DMk

She utilises several key stand-up techniques to maximise the discomfort and alienation of the situation:

• Dramatic Irony: This is where the audience know something that a character in the story does not. Here, the comedy is fuelled by the fact that the audience knows her secret (that she doesn’t really surf) that the boyfriend in the story does not. We know she is completely out of her depth and faking her surfing expertise, so watching her dig a hole for herself creates high-stakes, comedic tension.

• Vivid Analogies ("Is-likes"): To paint a picture of her awkwardness, Titelman gives us surprising analogies. She compares herself to his "stepmom" on the beach, claims she transforms into "Christopher Walken" when her hair gets wet, and describes being helplessly tossed by the wave like a "taquito" and a "sandy churro".

• Undercutting (Build it up, knock it down): She purposefully creates a highly glamorous image—slowly making an entrance into the ocean like a "Bond girl"—specifically to give herself somewhere to fall from. This makes the contrasting, unglamorous reality of being fully submerged "without your consent" and violently washed ashore significantly funnier.

• Personification: There is a touch of personifying the ocean (giving it human attributes) as an entity that should seek ‘consent’!

Try it

How you can utilise this “fish out of water” angle:

• Mining Past Experiences: Try drawing on real-life scenarios where you felt out of your depth. For example, feeling out of place in a posh restaurant, going to a gym for the first time, moving to a new country, starting a new job, attending an unfamiliar gathering or event, or feeling alienated in a social situation.

• The Dining Disconnect: To drill down into a specific angle, think about a specific dining experience where you felt completely out of place. This could be anywhere from a highly expensive, posh restaurant where you awkwardly tried to find the cheapest item on the menu, to a fast-food kebab shop, or even a kid's birthday party. Build the comedy by exaggerating the stark contrast between your own awkward behaviour and the people who felt perfectly at home in that environment.

Firstly, give us your impressions of this world from your perspective and imitate the people and behaviours within it. Then tell us how you tried to fit in. Note the difference between the Wehn and Titelman approaches. He believes he has successfully fitted in (we the audience realise he hasn’t). Titelman is painfully aware of how embarrassing her attempts to fit in are.

Are you aware or unaware in your failed attempts to fit in?

Finally, you can also purposefully put yourself into unusual situations or environments you would normally avoid, going in with the specific intention of observing the situation as an uncomfortable outsider and your own awkward reactions to gather new material!