From the get-go, the show let loose with a scattershot barrage of jokes, parodies, puns, and visual gags — then picked up the pace from there.
One key to pulling off the speed of The Simpsons was animation, as dispensing with the time-wasting physical business of the real world made way for more jokes.
Now actors didn’t have to cross a room to deliver a line. Props appeared in their hands. Rather than explaining offstage action, a quick cutaway showed it at no additional expense.
“It was just culturally dense and firing in so many brand-new directions,” said writer Matt Selman. “Every week you had to turn it on and see what they were going to do. And it said to a generation, ‘Oh, TV can be better,’ more than any other show.”
Besides animation, there was one other factor that sped up the snickers: No studio audience and no laugh track. Laughs take time, and those precious seconds could be used for more gags. Simpsons writers were more than happy to be relieved of the burden of real-time reactions. As writer George Meyer says, “the audience imposes their own lame pace on stuff.”
Jennings argues that while The Simpsons had an obvious influence on animated descendents like South Park and Family Guy, its bigger impact was on live-action TV comedy. Think about the flashbacks and quick cutaways in Arrested Development and How I Met Your Mother, the breakneck speed of 30 Rock, or the sprawling, Springfield-esque community in Parks and Rec. Jennings suggests that The Simpsons is responsible for the cartoonified speed of the sitcom.
Broadway Video
Is faster funnier?
There are plenty of mechanisms to measure jokes-per-minute, and the subject is surprisingly popular among fans. Some websites advocate watching certain comedy shows based on their JPM: 30 Rock is a Classic at 7.44 jokes per minute! Den of Geek has a JPM archive, cataloging joke velocity for shows like Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty, and Veep.
Has Comedy Reached Its Speed Limit?
Source: Pinoy Daily News
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