Observational Comedians remind us how slow we are to evolve
Do you know why we say “bless you” when someone sneezes? What does this say about our culture?
Apparently the reason we say “bless you” goes back to the time of the plague. As a sneeze was a symptom of the plague, when someone said “bless you” it was the form of a little prayer… a prayer that you wouldn’t die of the epidemic wiping out half of Europe.
Yet to this day, centuries after the devastation of the plague, we have retained this custom.
On some level customs are sweet and nostalgic… but sometimes they are just vestigial.
The Role of the Observational Comedian
Why do we love comedians?
Well, who doesn’t like laughing right?
But the observational comedian frequently draws attention to strange quirks and social trends, and we laugh.
It’s funny (pun intended) how ‘funny’ we find things that are just painfully plain logic. Take for example hair:
JERRY: Now, I was thinking the other day about hair, and that the weird
Thing about it, is that people will touch other people’s hair. You will
actually kiss another human being, right on the head. But, if one of those hairs
should somehow be able to get out of that skull, and go off on its own, it is
now the vilest, most disgusting thing that you can encounter. The same hair.
People freak out. (horrified) “There was a hair, in the egg salad!”
Let’s grab an example from the other famous writer from Seinfeld, Larry David. He famously won’t thank a veteran for their service just for the sake of it.
Agree or disagree with following every social norm, the worrying thing I’ve noticed is, this:
People will blindly conform over following logic. It’s the herd mentality.
Sheep in a Herd
In my two entrepreneurial adventures so far, I’ve noticed a whole range of vestigial things: of outdated standards that don’t make sense.
I found this to be true in the nonprofit world as well as the Australian real estate market.
The funny thing is, many people will notice a lot of the same things but not do anything about it. For example, real estate agents not taking advantage of social media to advertise properties for sale, rather than using more traditional measures.
In the charity and nonprofit space, we uncovered research that charity and donation started as a way for Westerners to avoid guilt, rather than help people. This was only a frustration as there were more effective ways to help people most of the time.
Yet people care more about doing what is familiar than what is effective or makes actual sense.
Once 30% of real estate agents use social media to sell homes, everyone rushes to uptake it. But when only 3% do, there is still caution.
Gaps
When people persist with outdated, useless things like saying ‘bless you’ every time someone sneezes, it creates redundancies and gaps.
Entrepreneurs and observational comedians are some of the people who point out and exploit these redundancies and gaps.
As an entrepreneur you manage a fine tightrope. Yes you’ve realised how things could be better. But your next question is:
Will the market understand this solution and be willing to fix the problem?
My hope is that over time we continue to get more flexible in our thinking, more wide-ranging, and permit ourselves to go to new places.
Observational comedians who point out crazy things we insist on doing in our society for no worthwhile reason, highlight this point. How most of us are still sheep in a herd, who just blindly follow what everyone else is doing without question!
By Joe Wehbe.
Instagram: joe.r.wehbe. LinkedIN: Joe Wehbe.
