Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-09
DOLLARS AND SENSE OF HUMOR

IS famll1aT and the point discounted
l seek no quarrel with my humor col
league; but | certainly do disagree with his
deductions in so far as joke of this caliber
and species is concerned. The joke, as it
stands, is intrinsically hundred times bet
ter than some of the mother in law jokes out
of which | have reaped considerable fl
nancial harvest | feel confident that |
could take the professor particular mother
in law Jest and turn it into a marketable and
remunerative piece of footlight humor. This
Joke is like every other joke. mother IN law
or otherwise. 1t is never the joke itself that
counts; it is always where the joke IS told.
To show YOU how | should go about con-
verting this joke into dollars let me imagine
a theatrical situation for you in which the
two figures are a henpecked husband and
his happy bachelor friend. The latter comes
to the trouble burdened ones home and
finds his friend seated in disconsolate atti
tude in a room that is in complete state OF
CONSTITUENCIES indicative of a recent violent
argument with his volcanic better half.
For few minutes the bachelor and his
married friend discuss the "joys' OF welded
life. The husband is very sad. His long
face prepares the audience for laugh, al
though the audience has not an mixing as to
how the laugh is to be brought out OF itself.
And vet, as sure as fate, the audience is ex-
pecting a laugh. The humor merchant
knows this, even if the audience does not.
When people come to see his show, they
come expecting olaugh. They are preJudlced,
so to speak, in advance.
After the two men have begun to pave the
way for the joke in the first few minutes, the
bachelor casually asks, "How is your wife,"
The husband does not reply, his face main
tanning the same old unchanged, gloomy
look. "How is your little boy Adolph?' in
ouires the bachelor. Still no reply, still the
same old detected look. Certainly nothing
funny thus far; but the show window tor
the display of the motherin law joke is being
rapidli put in order. Everything is finally
in readiness. "How is your mother in law9"
asks the bachelor. With the same blue
countenance, the married man goes on, and
the Joke gets under way.
Great laughter and applause is sure to
follow at its conclusion. Why? Because
the Joke was set in situation. 1t could
not fail! The very fact, cited contrariwise
by the professor, that the failure of the
Joke would be due to the familiarity OF
the auditor with its manner of evolution
and subject matter, would, on the stage,
work in its favor. No joke is ever old. 1t
is only the situation that grows old and
stale.
n - EON(JE ALE Stlu YOU IoCid
- trace every joke back to one of nine
original Jokes But the point he overlooked
was that each of the nine original jokes was
capable of nine hundred situations
Selling jokes is like selling haberdashery.
Look in a haberdasher's window in the
spring of three different years, and, in all
probability, you will see the same neckties.
But the neckties will look different, because
the haberdasher is smart enough salesman
to make them look like new stock by chang
ing the shirts that serve as backgrounds for
them.
1t is the same way with jokes. The 1910
Joke will look like new one if you put it
into a different situation; or, as we call it
in the theater, in different spot.
7 EFT us now turn to the "big goods in the
- humor business; that IS the elaborate
piece of comedy instead Of the single piece,
or joke. Every year get hold of one such
piece of "big goods which believe will be
the best seller for the year in question, and
so far have had the good fortune to dope the
thing out right. l have often been asked
how | hit upon the annual humorous idea
for the fun market. Accidentally" most
persons assure me. They are wrong HUI
NOR is business with me, not pastine,
and spend every minute of every day in the
year studying out the science. 1t isa science,
believe me- If it were not, the comic (.) val
entine would still be the one best bet in the