Hello everybody and welcome back to the Socap
Improv Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph. Ralph
McLeod. I am the owner and artistic director
of the Socap Improv Comedy Theatre in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada. We're at 154 Danforth Avenue
above the Black Swan Tavern on the second and
third floor. We have improv classes, shows, events,
our shows. We also have stand -up shows, sketch
shows. You can rent our facilities and put on
your own show. We do corporate events through
our company called Yes Unlimited, which will
come into your company and help transform your
team, make everybody like each other, work together,
talk to each other, all kinds of good stuff.
Anyway, this podcast is about improvisation,
improv comedy for this day, and also at least
as much about improv for just regular everyday
life. What can improv do for you? That's the
question, you know. All right. So today I want
to talk about the use of dissonance in comedy.
OK, so first of all, let's back up and discuss
what is dissonance? Well, dissonance is when
things don't quite go together. When I first
encountered dissonance as it relates to human
beings is the term cognitive dissonance, which
is the uncomfortable feeling that one gets when
one holds contradictory information in their
hands. An example would be, oh, maybe, you know,
you have a piece of gum and you crumple up the
wrapper and there's no garbage around. So you
throw it on the ground. That's one example. So
what that means is so basically in that scenario,
you might hold in your head the thought that
littering is bad, but I just littered. Right.
Therefore, am I a bad person? So these. These
two thoughts coexisting together in one's brain
tends to make an uncomfortable feeling. And so
what we as human beings tend to do is write some
kind of fiction that makes that okay. And we'd
write a line like, well, you know, if there were
more garbage cans, I wouldn't have to throw my
stuff on the ground. Ah, and then we breathe
a sigh of relief because we're not a bad person.
Or maybe you... When you do your taxes, you don't
declare all your income, you know, all your cash
income. So here's an example of, oh, well, it's
wrong to cheat, but I'm cheating. Uncomfortable
feeling. Oh, I know everybody does it. I feel
good. So when we have cognitive dissonance, we
tend to write a line that will, or a fiction,
we come up with an explanation that makes that
go away. It could be like, well, I know if I
go to the gym and exercise, I will live longer
and healthier. Or, you know, and so that's, oh,
but I'm not going to the gym. Oh, but you know
what? I'm getting good night's sleep or I'm eating
well or I'm doing these other things that will
sort of counteract the negative effects of not
going to the gym. You know, all these kinds of
things. We're all really good at doing this in
our daily lives and we all do it. In my experience,
everybody does it. I'm fascinated by cognitive
dissonance. You see it politically. I think the
most famous example of cognitive dissonance were
these people. It was a cult, and they believed
that the appearance of some comet was going to
signal the end of humanity. You know what a doomsday
cult, not the first. There's many of them, and
they all follow the same kind of pattern. In
which, you know, they expect the Earth's going
to end at a certain time and date. And they're
preparing for everything. And then the day comes,
you know, that their leader has prophesied will
be the day. And the day comes, the day ends,
and the world's still here. And they all look
around like, huh. Weird, right? That's cognitive
distance. The Earth was supposed to end. That's
what we believed in. It didn't end. Hmm. Oh,
I know. All our praying and prep made God forgive
us and give us another chance. So that's a big
example of cognitive dissonance. But we all do
it, you know, whether it's whatever you believe
in. Anyway, the dissonance also is a big part
of comedy. Another example of dissonance, just
not, you know, cognitive dissonance, but in music.
Yeah, you know, music uses... minor chords or
seventh chords and they're a little discordant
and they create kind of a disharmony or they
don't sound quite right. They build tension.
And then when the major chord comes, that tension
is resolved and we tend to feel emotions. There's
a joke that I wish I had written and it's about
the G7. The G7 is like the seven most... uh biggest
economies in the world like the u .s france britain
canada uh and uh the joke is uh oh boy somebody
should follow up the g7 conference with the c
major conference that'll resolve everything it's
a really good joke uh and uh i wish i'd written
it but so but dissonance also works in comedy
uh to great effect in fact it's it's it's difficult
sometimes to think about comedy or laughter without
distance. So a good example is like the punchline
of the joke. Whenever the punchline comes, there's
always a second of like, are they going to get
it or not? So this is a joke I wrote. What's
a canopy? And a canopy is a Scottish gentleman's
lament to his urologist. A canopy! It makes me
laugh. But you know, canopy. So when I, when
the, when the, so that's a bad joke, but once
the question is posed, there's like, there's
like a moment of, Oh, what if I don't get it?
Or it takes a split second for, Oh, I see canopy
cannot pee. Okay. It takes a second for that.
And then that you have dissonance. And then the
laughter comes when the dissonance is resolved
and you get it. And then that lets you know,
Oh, you're smart. You're included. You're one
of the group. We laugh. There was the release
of the tension because there's like, maybe I
won't get it. Maybe it's not for me. And so if
someone tells you a joke and everybody gets it
and you don't, you feel pretty isolated and pretty
alone and you want to get out of there because
it's not for you. You're excluded. You're not
part of the group. And the laughter comes at
the release of the tension. So you can't have
a release of tension without tension. And that's
what dissonance causes. So in improv, you'll
see dissonance happen a lot. And it's a great
tool to use when you're improvising. And it's
not like I ever sit around and go like, you know
what, in this scene, I'm going to use dissonance.
But you can create it often just by doing what's
unexpected. An unexpected point of view. or opinion
about a very stereotypical or very common occurrence.
And the one I'm always using on here is, you
know, a person comes home and finds their spouse
has been cheating. Now, in a very, in a relatable
way, our expectation is someone who finds their
spouse has been having an affair would be outraged,
angry, humiliated, hurt, sad, all these things.
But one thing you can always do is you can go,
you can be excited. You're cheating. Ah, yes.
Now, when you do that, that creates distance,
right? It's interesting. And the audience stops
and holds their breath because they need to know
why is he excited? I'm not, I don't know why
he's excited or they're excited. She's excited.
He's excited. They're excited. What's going on?
And then when you tell them the reason, ah, man,
this is great because I've been having an affair
for a long time and now I don't feel guilty anymore.
And then the audience will laugh and they'll
laugh like, oh, that's why they're happy because
they've also been cheating. And so when the dissonance
is resolved, you get a laugh, but you can't have
a laugh. In this case, there are cases where
you will get laughs without dissonance, but this
is a specific case of how. You paint a different
expectation or a different reality in the audience's
mind. Oh, I would have expected this reaction
to this information, but I didn't get that. I
got something completely different. And you need
to tell the audience what that is. And the audience,
that's whether you're on stage and you have an
audience watching you, you're in a classroom,
or your audience is the person you're interacting
with. I like to do this, you know, when I play
with people in real life, you know. And they'll
say something and I'll say something that they
don't expect. And it has the same effect. You
know, in my class, when I'm teaching this, I'll
always get something in class to call me a jerk.
I don't say jerk. I say something, a swear word,
but I'm not going to use it here. I say, call
me a jerk. And they call me a jerk. And then
I just look at them and smile and go, you're
not wrong. And it makes the audience laugh. And
because, you know. their expectation is that
I'm going to be offended that I'm not offended.
And I say, well, you know, Ron, I'm a real big
jerk. And then I play with them and it's very
fun. Yes. So, so dissonance is again, that, that
feeling of, I don't know what's going on. And
you see the same thing, even in the beginning
of a scene, when two people are started, there's
the audience will, okay. They will give you their.
attention. The same way that if you met somebody
and they started talking to you, you'd give them
a certain amount of time in order for them to
prove that they're worthy of having your attention.
And it's the same thing. And if you watch scenes
carefully, you'll notice that first laugh that
an audience will give is when the audience understands
what's going on. And it's the same thing when
you're talking to a person that you've never
met before. They will relax when they understand,
oh, you're somebody I want to talk to because
probably because you're relatable and you're
not you're not trying to affect me in some way.
You're not trying to put one over on me, change
me. You're just accepting who I am. And I like
that. So dissonance is a really powerful tool.
And and one thing about if you do not answer
it, if you create an odd situation. And you don't
answer the question. So if, you know, in my example,
if someone comes home and finds their spouse
has been cheating and then goes, woohoo, this
is great. Then walks out. Everybody just left
looking at each other thinking like, what's that
about? And if you do that in front of an audience,
what they will do is everybody will write their
own fiction, probably, if they care enough. And
it'll all be different. And then if you come
back in or someone comes back in, comes back
later and then explains why that dissonance happened,
that's too late. Because your dissonance, your
explanation better match what everybody's thinking
or else they will not trust you. Because again,
it's not for them. I've talked about this before.
This is why relatability is a much better strategy
than trying to wow people with your creativity
and originality. Not that creative and original
is wrong, but it's just you're going to create.
you're going to create more problems, but then
again, the payoff might be bigger too. But relatability
is what will endear an audience to you. Audiences
want to know what's going on because they want
to feel like they're involved, like they're a
part of it. Audiences, like all of us, very selfish,
right? What's in it for me? Why should I see
your show? Why should I talk to you? What's in
it for me? Now that's, it's not. Every time I
hear myself saying that, I think, oh, we're all
jerks. No, we can't help it. We all want things
that are relatable to ourselves. That's why we
like the stories we like and the movies we like
and the music we like, because it speaks to us.
It's relatable to us. It is something in it that
is for me. So a dissonance creates that uncomfortable
feeling in the audience's brain, like the punchline
of a joke. And then when you resolve it, they
laugh because they understand it's for me. I
am welcome. I have found my people, my tribe,
my community. Thank you. And that's great, too,
because that dissonance will focus people's minds
and make them present. They'll be like, eh. You
know, if you capture their attention, they will
be with you on your journey. Again, whether you're
on stage or you're talking to them at a party
or over dinner. you've got their attention and
they're focused and they're present. It's impossible
to do that and be thinking like, what's for dinner?
Who's picking up the kids? Oh, I got to get back
to so -and -so with that email they sent me.
You're focused. And that's one of the reasons
why it's compelling because we get a mental break
and we get to focus on the here and now and we
can let go of our problems and our worries and
our... you know, focusing on the future or the
past or things we can't control here. We're locked
in and we're in the moment. Experiencing eternity.
Eternity is not a when. Eternity is right now.
It's this moment. This one that keeps going on
and on and on. And dissonance like, you know,
uncomfortable things, mistakes, all these things
will focus everybody's mind. Everybody's focused.
You know, whenever there's a mistake, whenever
there's some kind of contradiction, everybody
holds their breath. waiting to find out what's
going on and if you can answer it uh people will
laugh generally and very much like you okay i
think that's it you know so the use of dissonance
in comedy uh and i i was i thought i have another
podcast coming up on uh you know cognitive dissonance
and uh and and how we can write lines with it
how you can write jokes and how you can um you
know it's a well i think you know it's more like
writing really it's it's really hard to come
up with these things in the moment although i've
seen it happen and uh when it does it's absolutely
brilliant so i got some great examples that i'll
share with you that i've seen about that but
anyway uh cognitive dissonance don't run from
it and i love it so you know making a choice
that's unexpected but then just explaining why
that's good why is it good that uh you know you're
spouse is having an affair why is it good that
um uh we're trying to think of anything bad that
happens on stage you know like um you got fired
okay see we don't expect people to be happy but
you know johnson you're fired yes thank you boss
what ah i hated this job anyway oh okay you know
i wanted to quit but i didn't have the gumption
now you fired me and now i'm free okay Now I'm
in. Now I understand why he's happy. They're
happy. I just want to know what's going on so
that I can participate in what's happening, right?
There's this thing that I run into all the time
where students, where improvisers feel like,
oh, I've got to hide this, right? I want to hide
it and reveal it at the right time. No, you don't.
No, you know, that's a really hard thing to do.
You can do it, but it's not. Not in the way you
think. I know that's so stupid to say that. It's
just a really difficult thing to do. It's nuanced.
It's covered up. It's hidden very well. Yeah,
it's really difficult. And really, you know,
since you get an idea to do something, you should
do it right away. Because the audience can see
it coming and they don't miss a thing. And if
you try to pretend that you're smarter than the
audience or hiding things from them, they will
hate you. And you will fail. So, yes, dissonance
in comedy, great tool. I recommend it. Or when
you see it happening, you know, blocks, blocks.
We used to call these things blocks. It's a denial
of reality. You know, here's an example is my
favorite kind of one that I use. A word character
A says, you know, hey, man, I was at a great
party last night. It's crazy. Your mother was
there. And then character B says something that
makes that first line impossible. Dude, my mother
died 10 years ago. Ooh, ooh, they see the B line
seems to make A's impossible, creates dissonance.
But if A sticks with it, they can write a line
that will make both of those lines true, and
we'll get a gay laugh. Because if A goes back
and says, I know, man, I said it was a crazy
party. oh my gosh, the party was so crazy that
there were ghosts there or people came back from
the dead or zombies or something. But the mother
was there, but even though she's dead, that's
how crazy the party was. And when you can do
that, not only is it very fun because we've removed
the dissonance, the cognitive dissonance, but
we've also enriched the world. Oh, I understand
more about this world. Oh, this world where there's
ghosts or zombies or demons or whatever. Oh,
that's cool. And that's also the dialectic, which
is Aristotelian dialectic. Thesis, antithesis,
synthesis, right? Line A makes a statement. Line
B seems to make line A impossible for some reason.
And then line C makes both statements true. And
we laugh and we feel really good because we get
it and we're smart and we found our people and
our group and we laugh. All right. Thanks, everybody.
Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you back here
next time for more SOCAP Improv Comedy podcasts.
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Have a great week. Bye -bye.