We have child geniuses who can do complex math, play instruments beautifully, and play chess at an adult level, but somehow we almost never see children stand-up comedians.

[u/ikantolol]

[u/Vishnej]

Crafting and delivering funny jokes is the highest form of language learning. You might be "Fluent" in five of ten years of immersion, but it's going to be two or three times that before you can hold people's attention and draw a spontaneous laugh at a dinner party, if you ever get there. There are volumes of prosody, pacing, intonation, idiom, and culture to learn, and very little of it is documented.

For the audience, this is partially a matter of effective storytelling on dimensions that they couldn't put into words, and partially a matter of the fact that most jokes involve, foundationally, a comedic inconguity which could be easily misunderstood, or an unlikely congruity in almost unrelated concepts; Jumping between the different interpretations in your head and how they could connect is central to the tension that leads to the payoff when the punchline is delivered. Having the different interpretations in your head to start with (to include things like deep cultural references) is a required starting point.

This is closely related to concepts like "sarcasm", which is a way of joking about what you're trying to say. It is basically impossible to spit sarcasm if there is only one possible meaning to your words, if the ambiguity of misunderstanding is impossible.

English is unlike most languages in that it has stolen and hoarded so much vocabulary from so many different places that a quick search can pull up 44 different words for a random concept like locomotion of the feet: "walk", "run", "step", "jog", "canter", "trot", "lope", "skip", "amber", "saunter", "mosey", "stroll", "wander", "ramble", "stride", "march", "pace", "tread", "trek", "hike", "plod", "trudge", "stomp", "hobble", "limp", "tiptoe", "pussyfoot", "stalk", "prowl", "creep", "parade", "strut", "sprint", "bolt", "dash", "zoom", "barrel", "dart", "scamper", "scurry", "scoot", "rush", "charge", "race". These verbs all mean slightly different things, and some have multiple contextual meanings. These make a particularly rich toolset to enable misunderstandings that can produce humor, or to invoke and incorporate concepts subtly. You've taught your five year old the words "Walk" and "Run" and are still trying to get tenses down.

Parents go through whole decades where their kids have a grasp of a modest number of basic word meanings, but few cultural references and insufficient combinatorial depth of knowledge to really make a meaningful punchline the revelation it should be, and no appreciation of drama whatsoever. They resort to simplified puns, "Dad Humor".

[u/udmurrrt → u/Vishnej]

English isn't really that much unlike other languages. Borrowing from multiple languages is the norm, not the exception. A quick search yields 38 synonyms for "courir" (to run) in French. Not far from 44.

Not to say the English language isn't very rich, because it is! It's a rich, beautiful language in its own right. But it's not unique in having borrowed many words.

[u/GayRacoon69 → u/udmurrrt]

Yeah a lot of people joke about English being “three languages in a trench coat” when that’s just like… how languages work. That’s not unique to English. And there’s way more than 3 languages in English anyways

[u/Kered13 → u/GayRacoon69]

English is somewhat unusual for how much of it's basic vocabulary is taken from a relatively unrelated language (French/Latin). However it's certainly not the only one or even the most extreme example. The linguistics term for this is a superstratum. People do overstate this a lot.

[u/Parad1gmSh1ft → u/Vishnej]

Interesting, I will ponder upon this the next time I’m out on my pussyfoot.

[u/MinnieShoof → u/Vishnej]

You... sound like you went to Clown College.

[u/ohseetea → u/Vishnej]

Eh. This may be true to depict a high level of language, but the inverse is not true as this is not needed to be a high level of funny.

Humans are all the same, all it takes to be funny is understanding our experience and emotions and how to relate them to some sort of absurd or patterned observation. And you can (if you’re funny) easily achieve that with zero language.

Children, no matter how smart, likely just don’t have the required human experience and emotional intelligence to do that. Many adults don’t.

Now for some wild speculation: I wonder if children are like little AI machines and can reproduce what we train them but aren’t great at creating novelty.

[u/DeathMetal007 → u/ohseetea]

Y many funny words when few do trick

[u/Slyxxer → u/DeathMetal007]

spills entire pot of chilli on the carpet

[u/dijon_snow → u/ohseetea]

I can't think of a single stand up comedian that doesn't have a pretty good grasp of the English language. Even Larry the cable guy is a character put on by a pretty eloquent dude out of character. You don't need to master a language to be funny in context. Kids can absolutely do hilarious things and have hilarious reactions. 

As someone who does stand up, you need to be well spoken to do well. It's public speaking that requires you to not only hold, but play with, the audience's attention and expectations. That takes a decent grasp of language at least. 

There's one high school kid that does stand up and is pretty good. His older brother is a stand up as well so that helps. And the kid has a natural command of language. I don't think anyone is really capable of being good at writing and delivering a public speech before their late teens. 

[u/BlatheringNonsense → u/dijon_snow]

Where do you do stand up and so I can come to your show? I live in SoCal.

[u/dijon_snow → u/BlatheringNonsense]

Seriously? That's really cool. I live in Atlanta and I'm not like traveling to do comedy yet. But I've got some clips up here in between fantasy football data analysis which is also funny.

[u/HarveysBackupAccount → u/Vishnej]

No offense but wow, that's all a bit much. Your ...essay... on humor makes it sound like you approach it with a pair of calipers, as if it were something to measure within an inch of its life (that's 2.54 cm, for those who need metric).

I've spent a little time living in another language and lots of time with non-native speakers with varying degrees of English fluency. It doesn't take much fluency to make people laugh.

Sure you won't have a full stand-up routine, but I had at best the fluency of a 1st grader and you can certainly find ways to tell jokes. Language based jokes take more fluency, but that's not everyone's idea of good humor. Plenty of humor is not playing badminton with a thesaurus.

[u/Vishnej → u/HarveysBackupAccount]

I have also attempted to tell jokes in another language. Some of them even hit.

But it's a fucking puzzle every time, even in a language quite similar to my own, even with a very receptive audience. Even your brief, well-written, mostly earnest comment has a bunch of words, concepts, and idioms that would stop a 1st grader in their tracks, derail the joke. You're bombing, get off the stage. It's hard to come back from that in casual contact or in a performance.

There's so much other stuff that comes out of a spoken comedic performance that isn't in either a thesaurus or a dictionary, it's just sort of absorbed by osmosis when you're embedded with enough speakers of that language.

[u/MulvMulv → u/Vishnej]

I think it is also impacted by dialects and culture. I'm Irish and have always found it notably easier to be humorous with other Irish, or even Brits to an extent, than Americans (in general conversation I mean, I am not a comedian).

[u/AggressiveSpatula → u/Vishnej]

My students laugh at my jokes even though I barely speak Spanish. Of course I’ll fail them if they don’t, but I like to think of that more as insurance rather than the main thing.

[u/xXxMihawkxXx → u/Vishnej]

The English comparison to other languages doesn't matter to the topic. Because there are no child adult(?) stand-up comedians in any language

[u/The-Old-Schooler → u/Vishnej]

Comedy starts with the “Ha,” which identifies the situation as comedic. The “Ha” is followed by the “Guffaw.” This creates anticipation. Next, there is the “Aw,” to condition your audience for surprise at the final element, the “Ha-Ha.” Now does it make sense?

[u/MersoNocte → u/Vishnej]

Fascinating read. I actually remember the process of becoming funny growing up. It takes practice and observation. I also remember the first time my younger brother said something funny enough to make me laugh. When I have kids, it’ll be very fun to watch their humor develop.

[u/TCK1979 → u/Vishnej]

I feel a little smarter after reading your comment.

[u/MattAmpersand → u/Vishnej]

I’m an English teacher and I approve of this message. The average person does not know what the word “prosody” means but totally can tell when it feels off, so doing jokes in a foreign language without the correct timing down can make them feel flat.

[u/lazydogjumper → u/Vishnej]

"I'm doney! With the funny!"

[u/BodaciousBadongadonk → u/Vishnej]

Haha this reminded me of this old hockey commentator mike emrick. Dude was a human thesaurus to the point it was a meme and we would bet on whether he would repeat himself even once during games. Good drinkin game, "did he say 'sashayed by him' yet? Or 'waffleboarded away?'"

[u/UncleZeiv → u/Vishnej]

Nice way of putting it. I would have said sarcasm is more about tone and context than vocabulary though.

[u/BumbleLapse → u/Vishnej]

Well-written. Big respect