Standup is a great medium for thinking about rhetoric. The jokes largely rely on how they are told, which encompasses everything from persona to body language to tone. Think about a comedian like Zach Galifianakis, whose persona is deeply ironicthere are meta jokes/jokes about jokes, absurd characters, etc.and compare him with a comedian like George Carlin, whose persona employed ranting and frustration and usually turned critique outward, toward those outside of the performance/audience. The relationship between these comedians and their audiences are (were) vastly differentwith Carlin the audience is in on the joke, but not so much with Galifianakis.
For this assignment, you will watch two comedy specials. There are many to choose from on Netflix, and these full-length specials tend to have a good sample size to work with. There are shorter sources, too, like The Standups on Netflix or some of the shorter Comedy Central specials. Please make sure you are using a whole set and not just clips, as you need to have a holistic understanding of the work. Clips are divorced of context and they are not usually helpful if you have not seen the whole special.
