That last post probably read a little like a text book, which is somewhat intentional. I posted a while back about how I bought a ton of books in order to learn some stuff about comedy, like writing exercises and such. Today I got the idea that I might be able to write a book on comedy, trying to add stuff that I feel was left out of of all the books I have. Here's something that popped in my head today. It's based on Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I call it Robinson's Hierarchy of Comedy. Maslow proposed that human's need stuff. Different stuff at different times. The most basic needs like food are at the bottom of a pyramid, and complex stuff (like self actualization) is at the top of the same pyramid and only pertinent when the lower needs are provided for. For example, someone who is hungry and sleepy is less likely to want to reflect on his value in the universe.
My Hierarchy of Comedy works in a similar fashion. First off, something needs to be Funny. If it's not funny, there's no comedy. End of story. After that, there is structure. Structure isn't necessary, but it helps. Right now, structure takes up the entire middle of the pyramid, but I really think it should be about step Two of Five. Five of course being Message. Some comedians have a message in their comedy, like end racism, but no one would care so much if the message wasn't delivered in a funny little package. Anyway, that's all I can really think up at the moment about the Hierarchy. I'll probably have to expand on that quite a bit if I want to write an actual book, but I did just come up with that...