'Wisest things'
B.J. Novak performs material-rich show for Parents and Family Weekend audience
1:17 p.m., Oct. 29, 2015--“How about this,” B.J. Novak’s father once offered. “Only say what you like, and only keep what they like.”
In the list titled “Wisest Things My Dad Has Said to Me,” Novak, writer and actor on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning comedy The Office and co-creator of the newly launched “The List App,” calls it “the most useful advice on standup comedy I have ever heard.”
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Indeed, it was wisdom he channeled at the Bob Carpenter Center on Friday, Oct. 23, before a test audience of 4,000-plus students and families.
As the main act for the Parents and Family Weekend Comedy Show, Novak was as rich in material as he was variety — PowerPoint presentations, ventriloquism, pictures of snuggly pandas, and a briefcase full of jokes to gauge (by laughter and applause) which lines stay here in Delaware and which return home.
The jokes, delivered with more zing than the summaries below, included such crowd favorites as:
- I learned nothing in college, but it was my own fault. I took psychology and reverse psychology.
- Trident: Do we really want to chew gum that means three teeth?
- I hate when people say they wouldn’t hurt a fly. What kind of sick mind would hurt a fly? “I don’t want to kill it; I just want to make sure it feels pain.”
Not all bits were hits.
“Give it up for the one girl who laughed,” Novak said, after a failed joke made its way into the stay-in-Delaware garbage bin.
While most of his material was tame, the edgier lines were more likely to wind up in the trash — reflecting a growing trend of censorship that Novak views with the warmth and humor that distinguishes so much of his writing.
“It's important to remember that political correctness comes from a good place: a desire to prevent hurt, to correct injustices, to protect,” he said by email. “But when provocative ideas are shut down and shamed instead of heard and challenged, we don't get our best ideas. And we certainly don't get our best comedy.”
Novak’s routine was a sharp blend of intellect and observation.
“Bill Nye could have been the mattress guy,” he said, playing out a scenario in which his store has the best jingle. “But he chose science,” and lived out the American dream of being “the anything guy.” (The Wetzel’s Pretzel guy, he noted, wasn’t as lucky.)
Novak also discussed the irony of having a bar that says “search” and a bar that says “what’s on your mind” just inches away from each other. “A search engine is a direct transcript of a person’s brain,” he said. “That’s your privacy issue.”
In addition to the more traditional stand-up elements, Novak offered a robust variety hour. He yelled, “Ryan started the fire!” for his television fans. He brought a student on stage and asked her to read her shirt, chock-full of Office references, aloud. He performed dramatic readings of two stories from his short story collection, One More Thing.
He had 4,100 people scream, “We love you John Krasinski!” in an (unbeknownst-to-the-crowd) voicemail for Rainn Wilson.
He invited his opening act, the all-female D-Sharps a cappella group, back on stage for an unscripted, unrehearsed performance of The Office theme song and closed the night with a book signing. And when staff handlers said "only books," Novak autographed ticket stubs, posed for photos, pulled out his pile of failed trashcan jokes and signed them all.
About Parents and Family Weekend
The comedy show was one of many events during Parents and Family Weekend, which also included the Parents and Family Tailgate and UD’s Colonial Athletic Association football game against the University of New Hampshire, which the Blue Hens won 31-14.
Article by Artika Rangan Casini
Photos by Ambre Alexander Payne