Mitch Hedberg (when he was younger) and the Gricean maxims!

Jokes, thoughts, thinking about jokes, joking about thoughts, AND MORE!

Dear friends,

Thank you for being here!
I’m supremely grateful for your finding your way here today.
And now, as your reward for clicking these buttons and reading these words, here are some more words! This is the latest entry in my project wherein I examine jokes I love that often end up having more profound implications than surface appearances may have initially suggested.

The project began with a piece about one Mitch Hedberg joke, where I assessed Hedberg thusly:

”His jokes are songs, infinitely relistenable. Whereas so much comedy requires surprise to have its desired effect, Hedberg's has somehow transcended that.”

I now revisit another of his classics. I hope you enjoy!

“One time a guy handed me a picture, he said ‘Here's a picture of me when I was younger.’ Every picture of you is when you were younger. ‘Here's a picture of me when I'm older.’ ‘You son of a bitch! How'd you pull that off? Let me see that camera!’”
-- Mitch Hedberg

Now, Mitch wrote and told this joke back when he AND photographic technology were both younger, and the apps and photo filters didn’t yet exist that now make it so easy to in fact create an image of what we might look like when we’re older. So, with that out of the way, let’s move forward! To the future! (Where we’re older.)

I love that this joke essentially holds up to this day, even though the time it takes between snapping a photo and seeing the result has dropped tremendously. It used to be you took a picture, finished the roll of film, waited to get it developed, went to the store to pick it up, brought it home, and only THEN could you show it to Mitch.

Or even more likely for me, you took a picture and then never finished the roll and still have a camera somewhere in your mother's basement that is half-full of photos you took one summer at camp in the early '90's and you NEVER got to show any of those photos to Mitch. Though if Mitch's spirit is floating around listening, go check those out! They're of me when I'm younger.

Also, even though Mitch's joke is great, we can understand why the other character in the joke said what he said, because "younger" is relative. It was likely a photo from years or decades earlier, unless he himself was joking.

That would be a pretty fun joke to do today, actually, especially now that we know Mitch's joke. Snap a selfie and then show it to someone immediately and say "Here's a picture of me when I was younger."

Until we heard this joke of Mitch's, most of us would never have given the phrase "when I was younger" a second thought. (When we were younger, that is.)

And now, I can't help but think that EVERY sentence I utter about an experience from my life could be tagged with "when I was younger." (Compared with when I was younger, that is.)

I went to the bank last week when I was younger.
I woke up this morning when I was younger.
I celebrated my birthday when I was younger. (I got older when I was younger?)

We could add it to almost any sentence, but we usually don't (thank goodness, it saves us a lot of time/typing).

What's going on here is that Mitch is basically playing around with the Gricean maxims.

What are those? I'm glad you asked. It would be very un-Gricean of me to mention them and then withhold that information, as you’ll see! (When you’re older.)

Well, once there was a man named Paul Grice, and here is the first paragraph of his Wikipedia page:

"Herbert Paul Grice, usually publishing under the name H. P. Grice, H. Paul Grice, or Paul Grice, was a British philosopher of language who created the theory of implicature and the cooperative principle (with its namesake Gricean maxims), which became foundational concepts in the linguistic field of pragmatics. His work on meaning has also influenced the philosophical study of semantics."
(When he was younger. ←I added that part.)

The Gricean Maxims:

”The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.
The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.
The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.
The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.”

In standard communication, these are things we strive for.

In joke communication, these are things we can exploit and capitalize on.

For example, I think it's funny that the man who came up with the maxim of quantity (where one "gives as much information as is needed, and no more") is forever commemorated on the internet as "Herbert Paul Grice, usually publishing under the name H. P. Grice, H. Paul Grice, or Paul Grice."

That's four names when just one would have done fine. Quantity!
(Imagine me shaking my fist at the sky while yelling “Quantity!” If you want!)

Back to Mitch and the older/younger man joke…

I believe it is the maxim of manner which most comes into play with this joke. The man in the photo is doing his best to avoid obscurity and ambiguity, but Mitch seizes upon the POSSIBLE obscurity and ambiguity present in the man's words, and he pounces!

Mitch's comedy is so powerful, he was able to squeeze obscurity and ambiguity out of the man's words, even though there was hardly any there. The ol' seize and squeeze!

When life gives you anything, make joke-ade.

It's a beautiful power that Mitch had, and it’s also one that we can all aspire to tap into. There are potential jokes out there waiting to be found, hidden in plain sight in the language we use every day. I'm very grateful that Mitch discovered this power and shared his gift with us as he did. (When he was younger.)

Just a quick final note... this is a power that can make you a very successful comedian OR a very annoying friend. (Or both!)

I know this because I used to be that very annoying friend.
When I was younger.
Just a moment ago.

And now, because I like to share jokes of my own, here are a few jokes of my own!

A) is for A photographic memory:

Sometimes people speak of having photographic memories, but historically, photographs can degrade over time.

B) is for Before:

A fun name for a show about Mozart WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER could be “Teen Wolfgang.”

C) is for Cartoon:

When I was a kid, I read comic strips in the newspaper and there were a few of them like Mary Worth and Prince Valiant where the drawings were much more realistic than most of the other cartoons. And I was like, hey newspaper, if I wanted to see real people, I’d look at a photo or go outside!

And that’s about all for me for right now!
What about YOU? Here are some questions!
Feel free to comment or reply to this email if you wish!

1) How are you doing? How is your heart? What’s new and good?
2) What were you like when you were younger?
3) What have you learned upon getting older?
4) Did you enjoy Mary Worth or Prince Valiant? Maybe I would now!
5) How are you doing NOW? (That you’re older and wiser.)

And now, before we get any older, here are a few of my upcoming shows!
Some new ones added recently! More to come!

— Queens, NY: QED Astoria (TONIGHT! Thursday, March 20)
— Greenville, SC: Comedy Zone (Fri-Sat, April 11-12)
— Mamaroneck, NY: The Emelin Theatre (Thursday, May 1)
— Waterford, MI: One Night Stan’s (Fri-Sat, May 2-3, link coming soon!)
— Minneapolis, MN: Acme Comedy Company (Wed-Sat, May 21-24)
— Bennington, VT: Bennington Theater (Saturday, June 7)
— Cambridge, MA: The Comedy Studio * (2 Shows, Saturday, June 14)
— McKinney, TX: The Comedy Arena (Fri-Sat, July 18-19)
— Austin, TX: Cap City Comedy Club (Tues-Wed, July 22-23, link coming soon!)
— Tyler, TX: Rose City Comedy (Fri-Sat, July 25-26)
— more dates to come at punchup.live/myqkaplan and myqkaplan.com/tour

And FINALLY, a wonderful poster made by artist McKinley Cox using a delightful photo taken by photographer Fabrice Trombert!

Thank you for being here, all! Much love to you and yours and all!