Why Comedies Suck Now - Judd Apatow (4K)

You said your parents' divorce bought your house and cars.

That's true.

How so?

It's funny 'cause when I first started doing standup, I remember writing in a notebook, and this is years, actually years before I ever got on stage, you know, some joke about how Richard Pryor's, like, grandmother ran a brothel. Like he grew up in a brothel. And all I had to work with to be a comedian was my parents getting divorced. Like, it wasn't enough to be a genius, it was just enough damage (laughs) to get you in the game, that I wished my grandmother ran a brothel, and then maybe I would be more messed up.

You wanted more trauma.

I needed more trauma. But it was enough. It certainly was enough. But back then, when people got divorced in the, in the early '80s, uh, people just, you know, fought. They, like, really, like, fought. It... People weren't aware that you should, uh, keep it away from the kids.

Oh, it was all out in the open.

Yeah, too much i- i- involvement. Too much of us-

This was trench, trench warfare and you were in the middle of it.

Exactly. Too much of us knowing what was going on. And I... We had really thin walls. I remember I would hear them arguing, so I knew they were gonna get divorced way before they told me.

It was a protracted dispute.

Yeah.

Right.

And the funny part was they sat us all down, I remember, like, sitting, me and my, my, my brother and sister down, like, on the brick next to the fireplace and telling us they were getting divorced, and then six months later, they got back together, and then a year and a half later, they sat us down (laughs) again.

Oh my God.

And so I had the double, the double divorce.

They got divorced twice?

Uh, yeah, I mean, they broke up and then they finally-

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

... they finally did.

Yep. Yeah, a false start and then a, a small whatever, uh, treaty between the two and then-

Yeah.

... and then back again. Uh, certainly a lot of the comedian friends that I see or working with, and actually this is the same for music as well, um, discomfort and pain seems to be a real creative catalyst.

Yeah.

Uh, some people turn it into trying to earn money and make a business.

Mm-hmm.

Some people turn it into trying to make people laugh, some people turn it into beautiful chords and lyrics that make people cry, or... Is it a prerequisite to be a funny comed- is it difficult to be a funny comedian without a ton of trauma?

There was a really funny conversation, uh, that Garry Shandling had about this with Jerry Seinfeld, and, you know, they were talking about, you know, "Do you need pain to be funny?" And Jerry Seinfeld says, "Well, what about talent? What about just talent?" And Garry went, "Why are you so angry?" (laughs)