No laughing matter - how AI is helping comedians write jokes
Technology
Comedians are increasingly experimenting with technology to write scripts
(Web Desk) – “Why did the politician bring a ladder to the debate? To make sure he could reach new heights with his promises!”
Ask AI to write a political joke, and the above is an example of what you can get.
Perhaps not funny enough to deliver on stage in front of a paying audience, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for AI in comedy.
Comedians are increasingly experimenting with the technology to write scripts and brainstorm ideas, including Anesti Danelis. Earlier this year, the Canadian asked popular AI chatbot ChatGPT to write him a show.
The result is what he has been performing throughout this summer, including at this month’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The BBC sat down with Anesti after his sixth performance in seven days at the Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival in July. He explained the writing process behind his show “Artificially Intelligent”.
“I was playing around with ChatGPT, and the results it gave me were terribly hilarious, and I thought ‘maybe there's a show in this?’.”
Despite some rubbish jokes, he says the tool was useful for brainstorming.
“I asked it to ‘write me five songs about bisexual dilemmas’, or ‘being an immigrant child’, and it gave me ideas that I would have never thought of.”
What he wasn’t expecting from AI was its understanding of how to devise a show.
“I told it to make me a running order, and it explained where every song should go and why, and it made total sense. I was surprised by how much it could explain the reasoning behind it.”
Despite using the technology to write chunks of the script, Anesti’s show very much relies on his delivery. Throughout the performance the comedian switches from a keyboard to a guitar to deliver songs and monologues.
There’s lots of interaction, including a serenading of an audience member, with a song written about them by ChatGPT.
A recently released study from the University of Southern California found that AI-generated jokes outperform those crafted by human beings. Bethany, however, is not so sure, and feels “humans are pretty good at sniffing out AI”.
If she is watching something, she adds: “I feel like I know when the writing had no human involved. But I'm sure that will change as it gets smarter.”
Making audiences laugh is big business, and over the past decade the stand-up comedy market in the US has almost tripled in terms of the combined value of tickets sold.
That is according to data from trade publication Pollstar, which monitors the live performance sector. It says US comedy ticket sales hit $900m (£700m) in 2023, up from $371m in 2012.
Meanwhile, a separate study last month said that live comedy was now worth more than £1bn a year to the UK economy. This figure includes not just ticket sales, but also the revenues of comedy venues and festivals, and the positive impact on the wider local economies.
