Comic timing

Comic timing or comedic timing emerges from a performer's joke delivery: they interact with an audience—intonation, rhythm, cadence, tempo, and pausing—to guide the audience's laughter, which then guides the comedic narrative.^[1]^[2]^[3] The pacing of the delivery of a joke can have a strong impact on its comedic effect, even altering its meaning; the same can also be true of more physical comedy such as slapstick.^[4] Comic timing is also crucial for comedic video editing to maximize the impact of a joke, for example, through a smash cut.

^ Smith, Daniel R. (2018). "Part I: Analtical[:] The Professionalisation of Stand-Up Comedy[:] John Gordillo[:] IV. Expedience". Comedy and Critique: Stand-up comedy and the professional Ethos of laughter. Bristol Shorts Research. UK: Bristol University Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-5292-0015-7. Gordillo's dramaturgy is built around form, not content: timing and rhythm are driven towards emotional escalation which seeks catharsis, but it is laughter which guides narrative. Narrative is, in this sense, a vanishing mediator (Jameson, 1973): the emotional intensity is drawn out in material but once this material has delivered laughter it becomes narratively void.
^ Davis, Andrew (2014) [2011]. Baggy Pants Comedy: Burlesque and the Oral Tradition. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 11, 70–71. ISBN 978-1-137-37872-9. The written word is not effective at conveying such things as inflection, pace, rhythm—all the elements that go into what is loosely called comedy timing...Delivery is as important, if not more important, in the success of the joke... To a large extent this is because the word 'timing' has come to be applied to all aspects of joke-telling that are not directly related to the text of the joke itself—including such elements as pacing, rhythm, inflection, and other aspects of vocal delivery... At its most basic, timing is simply about 'waiting for the laughs,' pausing long enough for the laughs to start to die down before going on to the next joke or set-up line... Timing has a lot to do with including the audience as a part of this communication...Timing is often used to talk about delivery.
^ Dean, Greg (2000). Step by Step to Stand-up Comedy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. p. 126. ISBN 0-325-00179-0. The comedian doesn't have timing; the comedian spontaneously creates timing based on how he or she is being affected by the audience... it's an act of creativity that happens in the present
^ Capture Your Flag (2011-10-19), Matt Ruby on How to Improve Comic Timing, retrieved 2017-03-19

[1] Smith, Daniel R. (2018). "Part I: Analtical[:] The Professionalisation of Stand-Up Comedy[:] John Gordillo[:] IV. Expedience". Comedy and Critique: Stand-up comedy and the professional Ethos of laughter. Bristol Shorts Research. UK: Bristol University Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-5292-0015-7. Gordillo's dramaturgy is built around form, not content: timing and rhythm are driven towards emotional escalation which seeks catharsis, but it is laughter which guides narrative. Narrative is, in this sense, a vanishing mediator (Jameson, 1973): the emotional intensity is drawn out in material but once this material has delivered laughter it becomes narratively void.

[2] Davis, Andrew (2014) [2011]. Baggy Pants Comedy: Burlesque and the Oral Tradition. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 11, 70–71. ISBN 978-1-137-37872-9. The written word is not effective at conveying such things as inflection, pace, rhythm—all the elements that go into what is loosely called comedy timing...Delivery is as important, if not more important, in the success of the joke... To a large extent this is because the word 'timing' has come to be applied to all aspects of joke-telling that are not directly related to the text of the joke itself—including such elements as pacing, rhythm, inflection, and other aspects of vocal delivery... At its most basic, timing is simply about 'waiting for the laughs,' pausing long enough for the laughs to start to die down before going on to the next joke or set-up line... Timing has a lot to do with including the audience as a part of this communication...Timing is often used to talk about delivery.

[3] Dean, Greg (2000). Step by Step to Stand-up Comedy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. p. 126. ISBN 0-325-00179-0. The comedian doesn't have timing; the comedian spontaneously creates timing based on how he or she is being affected by the audience... it's an act of creativity that happens in the present

[4] Capture Your Flag (2011-10-19), Matt Ruby on How to Improve Comic Timing, retrieved 2017-03-19

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