Comedy is Hard

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"Dying is easy. Comedy is hard."*

Oh, Captain Honors. The first lesson a comedian learns on the stand-up circuit is that if you want to work "edgy," your material had better be killer.

If your jokes aren't good enough to make everyone begrudgingly admit how much they were laughing when they were supposed to be offended, then you're sunk.

And, brother, you're sunk. Even Glenn Close is mad at you.

Advice to future miltary comedians: if you don't understand exactly where the line is (like Bob Hope always knew), you should probably stick to the corny, middle-of-the-road schtick dished out by guys like Jay Leno. Sure he sucks, but nobody ever gets that mad at him.

Also, whenever you're in front of a camera, please think about how whatever you're doing might look someday on CNN. That is all.

*Free advice: this quote has been attributed to countless actors as their famous last words but, if you haven't seen it, you should really rent My Favorite Year to hear Peter O'Toole deliver the line. The comedy writing in that movie is excellent.

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