The safest genre is the horror film. But the most unsafe - the most dangerous - is comedy. Because even if your horror film isn't very good, you'll get a few screams and you're okay. With a comedy, if they don't laugh, you're dead.
Interpretation
Comedy is riskier than horror because it relies on audience laughter for validation.
This quote highlights the inherent risks involved in creating comedy compared to horror. While a horror film can achieve some level of success through audience reactions like screams, comedy demands consistent laughter to be considered successful. If a comedy fails to evoke laughter, the creator faces immediate disappointment, making it a more vulnerable genre.
In practice
In a stand-up comedy show, the comedian can refer to this quote to emphasize the pressure to make the audience laugh.
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I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.
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I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.
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I'm interested in art for all. I don't want it to be only the sons and daughters of Tory MPs who get to see my plays.
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