Debunking three truisms about comedy
As we all know from improv classes, comedy comes in threes. There's the three theories of comedy. There's the rule of three: including something unusual as the third element in a list or series of "normal" things makes it funnier. And then there's what I'll call the three truisms of comedy analysis:
1. explaining humor kills it
2. comedy = tragedy + time
3. comedy is culturally specific
I think they are malarkey.
Let's take the first truism: explaining humor kills it. The problem with this
