YEARS AGO I was watching George Carlin at a Springfield Mass theater because my Exit 7 friend Mark had invited a lot of us to go see how a master worked.
In the 3rd quarter of the show, when Carlin had the audience thoroughly in his hands and had totally earned our attention, he stopped and said in a very straightforward way that he needed to test a new set of lines. He apologized in advance if they weren't funny but he wanted us to react any way we felt, so here we go.
Each joke was a description of an awkward situation followed by the punchline "What A Spot!". For example: "Imagine you come back to consciousness ... standing on an altar ... completely naked ... and peeing on the bishop ... What A Spot!"
Some of the lines drew laughs, and some of them didn't. Mostly, it was great to see the guy at work, practicing his craft and getting feedback from the audience.
The point of this story is this: How often do you think someone saying something outrageous on the internet is testing their material?
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