The topical humor and topical jokes is humor framed around a specific topic related to current events or dealing with issues that are important or popular at the current time. The value of this kind of humor often diminishes when the topic is no longer widely discussed in public.Liisi Laineste, "Teke it with a Grain of Salt: The Kernel of Truth in Topical Jokes", Besides jokes, topical humor may be in forms of

news parody News satire or news comedy is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as journalism itself, but it is particularly popular on t ...

, "Top 10" lists,

demotivator A motivational poster, or inspirational poster, is a type of poster commonly designed for use in schools and offices. Intent The intent of motivational posters is to make people achieve more, or to think differently about the things that they ma ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of image ...

s, etc. Sometimes old jokes may be turned into topical ones due to the newly acquired salience. Liisi Laineste of

Estonian Literary Museum The Estonian Literary Museum (ELM; et, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum), is a national research institute of the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia. Its mission is to improve the cultural heritage of Estonia, to collect, preser ...

writes that topical jokes and news parodies emphasize the need to look critically at the flow of the news.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud described the "topicality"The English term "topicality" is used in the translation by Joyce Crick. The translation by

Abraham Brill Abraham Arden Brill (October 12, 1874 – March 2, 1948) was an Austrian-born psychiatrist who spent almost his entire adult life in the United States. He was the first psychoanalyst to practice in the United States and the first translator of S ...

uses the term "actuality", see wikisource:Wit and its relation to the unconscious/IV" aspect of jokes in his book ''

Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious ''Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious'' (german: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten) is a 1905 book on the psychoanalysis of jokes and humour by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. In the work, Freud describes the ps ...

There are jokes which are completely independent of this opicalitycondition, and in a monograph on jokes we are obliged to make almost exclusive use of examples of that kind. But we cannot forget that, in comparison with these perennial jokes, we have perhaps laughed even more heartily at others which it is difficult for us to use now because they would call for long commentaries and even with such help would not produce their original effect. These latter jokes contained allusions to people and events which at the time were ‘topical’, which had aroused general interest and still kept it alive. When this interest had ceased and the business in question had been settled, these jokes too lost a part of their pleasurable effect and indeed a very considerable part.

Topical humor of standup comedians

Garry Trudeau described how stand-up monologues are created from the news by professionals. Contrary to a popular opinion that they are to a large degree improvisations, in fact they are produced by a team of specialized professionals. In his example of a workflow, the work starts with "clippers", who sift though numerous news headlines and

lead paragraph A lead paragraph (sometimes shortened to lead; in the United States sometimes spelled lede) is the opening paragraph of an article, book chapter, or other written work that summarizes its main ideas. Styles vary widely among the different types an ...

s for joke ideas. Next in the pipeline is a "joke engineer", who defines the structure of the joke: its components, the speed of its build-up, the idea of the

punch line A punch line (a. k. a. punch-line or punchline) concludes a joke; it is intended to make people laugh. It is the third and final part of the typical joke structure. It follows the introductory framing of the joke and the narrative which sets up ...

, etc. Next enter a "joke stylist", who creates a draft and sends it to the "polish man". The final step of joke creation is done by the "timing coach", who is responsible for the timing of phrases and pauses. Only after that the joke is passed to the "talent", who will be delivering the monologue, who dry-runs it, adding personal individuality, as well as "recovery lines" to be used when a joke sizzles. Garry Trudeau
"Anatomy of a Joke"
'' The New York Times'', August 1, 1993, Section 4, Page 15

Sigmund Freud

Topical humor of standup comedians

Notes

References

Further reading