Is it common for comedians to (almost) completely make up stories for the sake of good material at a gig?

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SgtBukkakeMan@reddit

Normal folks embellish their stories all the time, so professionals that tell funny stories for money definitely do. I imagine there's a kernel of truth there that they build upon.

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KeySherbet1285@reddit

Totally! A good comedian knows how to spin relity into gold. It’s all about the laugh, right!

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GillyBilmour@reddit

Ignoring the fact I am probably replying to an AI account, comedians don't just embellish, they straight up make-up stories and relationships with people. It's part of the job.

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Left_Web_4558@reddit

>I am probably replying to an AI account What the fuck are you on about?

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GillyBilmour@reddit

OP's text was weirdly enthusiastic, perfect grammar, and a new account from December 2025.

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... Why would a bot designed to make you think it's not a bot be any of those things? Like at the very least has it never occurred to you that the state backed engineers with immense expertise and resources might think "maybe we should at least make up a name instead of using the default Reddit name to make it slightly less obvious to these utter morons that these are bots"? It's wild how poor people are at identifying actual bots. It seems everyone on Reddit has come up with these ridiculous criteria that would be so obvious and trivial to bypass for anyone making any effort at all to pull the wool over your eyes. And in doing so, made themselves even more oblivious to actual manipulation because you can convince redditors you're definitely not a bot by... Changing your username and making a couple of grammar mistakes. By the way, they misspelled reality. ChatGPT doesn't make typos. Not that sophisticated state run botnets would be using anything like ChatGPT.

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GillyBilmour@reddit

Are you a bot working for the bots? The plot thickens

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speedloafer@reddit

>Normal folks embellish their stories all the time No they don't. People who lie (like Jay from Inbetweeners) are always talked about and laughed at behind their own backs. If you regular lie to your work colleges or friends then this is most likely happening.

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saccerzd@reddit

People with a modicum of social skills know how to change the flow/length/details of a story for a given audience to make it better and funnier. It's not lying necessarily, it's just about being interesting and occasionally embellishing the odd detail.

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speedloafer@reddit

I can tell any funny story from my past and I don't need to lie about anything because its a funny story I don't need to lie. What you call social skills the rest of the world calls bullshit.

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saccerzd@reddit

No, as you can see from the downvotes you're misunderstanding. We're not talking about Jay from the Inbetweeners or your mate from the building site claiming he used to be in the SAS and nearly became a pro footballer until he hurt his knee etc. We're talking about stories that are broadly true, but small details/embellishments are used to improve the narrative, rather than sticking rigidly to the truth 100%.

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How_did_the_dog_get@reddit

Of course people do. It's not just embellished, it's name changes, times, time spans. You change a story for the audience, make it a bit better, increase or decrease the amount of a thing because it's a bit funny, or makes it seem more absurd. Comics do it , 100 eggs falling off a shelf is wild. 20 maybe believable. But 1, even if it was 1 isn't funny. 7 is. If you have never changed a story in your life accidentally or not I don't believe you. I have a story from work that I have unknowingly changed. 100% hand on heart I was telling the truth, until I checked emails 2 years later and my timeline was off by quite an amount.

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speedloafer@reddit

No, I'm not a bullshitter and there is a clear difference between a comedian on stage (all their stories are made up, I thought this was common knowledge) and somebody in real life trying to tell you something happened. If you regularly make up stuff people are talking and laughing behind your back. I'm not talking about changing a name to protect somebody I'm talking about obvious lies. I have seen this countless times in work too (Builder). One lad was called "Buckets of Blood" because he was always bullshitting about fighting but he never had a scratch on him, not even on his hands. But nobody is going to call you a liar, they will let you lie for their entertainment just so they can laugh at you when you are gone. You would see Buckets of Blood on site and you would start to get excited because you know he is about to tell you a story of how he knocked out a man and his dog or went to a travellers site and took on 3 of them at once.

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dprophet32@reddit

I'm not sure you understand what they're trying to say and they are correct. It's not about making up lies it's about ever so slightly changing a true story a tiny bit.

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lankymjc@reddit

Wait, which is it? Do they not do it, or do they do it and get laughed at?

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ChoakIsland@reddit

Jay's always knee deep in klunge down at the caravan club.

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speedloafer@reddit

I had a friend who told me his Dad was in the IRA and at an under 18;s Disco we were all at he was offered 2 lines of coke from somebody he didnt know and couldn't point him out even though we literally knew everybody in the place. That was over 30 years ago and we still laugh about all his bullshit.

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speedloafer@reddit

no they don't, people laugh at you behind your back when you make up stories. [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheInbetweeners/comments/1q82849/how\_do\_you\_tend\_to\_deal\_with\_real\_life\_jay/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheInbetweeners/comments/1q82849/how_do_you_tend_to_deal_with_real_life_jay/)

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donalmacc@reddit

There's a world of difference between being Jay in the inbetweeners, and flair in stories. Charismatic people and good speakers naturally add small details, and remove unimportant ones.

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speedloafer@reddit

"Normal folks embellish their stories all the time" was what I was responding to and I would say No they don't or at least the ones I know and if you were caught lying to say your work colleges or friends you would never live it down. I'm not talking about a comedian or a speaker just a normal person at work or in the pub. If you have been to Tenerife then he's been to Elevenerife etc etc.

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MacFunJess@reddit

So, wait, you think people are either 100% laser accurate with their anecdotes (despite y’know memory already being a factor) OR they tell incredibly unbelievable and over the top fantasies? You don’t think there’s an in between? (ers)

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BadBanana999@reddit

Yeah the problem is I don’t think you know what embellish means considering you have just linked a question about Jay Cartwright, famous for literally just making things up.

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speedloafer@reddit

Anything you add onto your stories is literally just made up Jay went to the caravan park. Not a lie. Jay was knee deep in clunge at the caravan park. A lie. Jay went to Austalia. Not a lie Jay was shagging supermodels in Australia. A lie. I could go on.

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Fuzzy_Dragonfruit_20@reddit

People embellish small details all the time, not unrealistic blatant lies like Jay. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, it’s not black or white.

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two_beards@reddit

Comedian here. I'm forever seeing new acts tell stories that fizzle out at the end. When I suggest thinking of better endings they often say 'but that's what happened'. Comedians learn pretty early on that its more important to be funny than honest on stage. The audience isnt looking for truth, they're looking to laugh.

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hdhxuxufxufufiffif@reddit

>Comedians learn pretty early on that its more important to be funny than honest on stage It's like learning a new language. When you take an oral exam, it's better to be accurate than honest. If you can't remember the French for "I have an older brother and two older sisters", but you can remember the French for "I'm an only child", then for that twenty minutes in the exam room you're an only child.

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McFizzleKicks@reddit

A friend of mine blanked in his French oral exam, so when he was told to tell the shopkeeper that he was unhappy, he leant into the mic and growled. He got his point across but still failed the exam.

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hdhxuxufxufufiffif@reddit

My GCSE French oral was recorded on cassette way back when and my teacher kept silently mouthing hints to me. I got an A, so if you're reading this Mme Gilbert, thank you!

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Boboshady@reddit

My German teacher actually stopped the tape repeatedly and told me the answers. And I still got an F.

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hdhxuxufxufufiffif@reddit

In German that surely stands for Fantaschtich

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Boboshady@reddit

To answer as I would have done at the time, "Ja? Nice one! errr, nice eins!".

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hdhxuxufxufufiffif@reddit

It's very confusing these days for students taking GCSEs in German now that they've changed the letters to numbers, because how do they know if they got a top mark of 9 or a fail of "nein".

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Brent_Goose@reddit

I got totally stuck in my German oral exam, so my teacher furiously stopped the cassette, made me go get the script we learnt from, and then had me read it out for the recording. On reflection it wasn't really my fault that I didn't understand a word of German after five years, is it, Mrs Bradley? I ended up with a C overall, so thanks I guess.

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ikariw@reddit

A teacher at my school got fired for this

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CurrencyAbject6088@reddit

We were told we had to answer in French , he should have growled with a French accent and he might have scraped a pass. Lol

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Maus_Sveti@reddit

Yes, there’s a woman in my Italian class who drives me nuts because every single answer is like: “what’s your favourite TV show”, “I don’t watch TV”, “what’s your typical daily routine” “every day is different”, “what did you eat for dinner last night” “I do intermittent fasting”. Like if it was an occasional occurrence I’d buy it, but it’s constant. I think she just wants to be not like the other girls.

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lauraandstitch@reddit

That sounds infuriating.

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Chevalitron@reddit

When I was studying French I basically feigned a tennis interest for years just so I would have a sport to discuss rather than just saying I didn't do anything.

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

contrarian is the word you are looking for

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mostly_kittens@reddit

I bumped into my old French teacher the other day, he asked me what I was doing these days. I said playing football and watching TV. (This didn’t really happen, I stole the joke off an actual comedian)

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bopeepsheep@reddit

My GCSE language exam story (which I promise is true): I was required to "go into a shop and ask for these items". I blanked on one but managed "I want some of that white stuff you wash your face with". No, don't ask me why I could remember *that* and not *seife*. The examiner said "if you can say that I think you'll be fine" and gave me full marks. Were I a comedian telling this story I'd have "propositioned the examiner" or told her I had terrible diarrhoea or something (and yes, I do know the German for that too). Or perhaps I'd have engaged her in a dialogue about the futility of existence, why the Germans laugh at misfortune and catastrophe so much, and what use is soap to East Germans in the bleak tail-end years of the Cold War? My teenaged self was an overly dramatic Goth, after all.

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DameKumquat@reddit

I couldn't remember any professions when asked 'what do you want to do in the future?' So I said I wanted to get married and have lots of children. Teacher behind the examiner choked. Examiner went 'oh, really?' Oh yes! At least three boys and three girls. Teacher completely lost it and the examiner ended it. Got an A.

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Tundur@reddit

A huge number of "oh yeah remember that guy" comedians *are* being honest. They have one great tour based on their actual life experiences (okay, maybe exaggerated but still grounded) and then they disappear because they didn't have anything else to say.

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paulmclaughlin@reddit

I saw Ben Elton at a talk last year, he highlighted how that's an important part of a comedy writer's job, to help people who have charisma and stage presence but only limited material to build on their own experience

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two_beards@reddit

Yeah, there was definitely a spell of 'one interesting thing happened to me so I'll make an Edinburgh show out of it' acts. One of them got a Netflix drama out of it.

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GourangaPlusPlus@reddit

Is that the stalker guy or Ross Noble's cancelled drama about saving a polar bear who a Russian Spy?

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DidgeryDave21@reddit

I have a friend doing quite well now in the comedy world who used to end a specific bit like "you know what? That never happened! I made it up. It'd be quite easy to lie and have you all sit there thinking "what a funny series of events!" But no. I want you to sit there and say "Well written, Ian!" Obviously, through text it doesn't come out very funny, but yeah...

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AlunWH@reddit

Ian’s clearly a fan of Stewart Lee.

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Namelessbob123@reddit

It’s a shame he’s let himself go

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McFizzleKicks@reddit

I saw him the other day and he looked fat and depressed and fat.

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bisectional@reddit

I mean, he is the 41st greatest stand-up comedian of all time.

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Boboshady@reddit

Me?

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blitzwig@reddit

That reminds me, what's Morrissey up to these days?

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PissedBadger@reddit

Ian?

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Zealousideal_Low1287@reddit

Ratko Mladic

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dprophet32@reddit

In fairness Stewart Lee isn't the only comedian to do that and wasn't the first that I heard. He really has let himself go

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jwf91@reddit

These days you can’t even say that Stewart Lee does this without getting arrested and thrown in jail

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Uncle_Zardoz@reddit

Bring back comedy.

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TeddyAlderson@reddit

Louis CK used to do that a lot too (not that I still watch him)

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dr_aureole@reddit

At least one of Louis CK's problems was around \_not\_ letting go of himself

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dprophet32@reddit

Yes that's certainly one I was thinking of

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Frightlever@reddit

The Randy Feltface bookshelf story springs to mind.

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NuisancePenguin44@reddit

I was so disappointed that that wasn't true

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Frightlever@reddit

Maybe it was true and he's just fucking with us.

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lottesometimes@reddit

I love the idea though that Joe Wilkinson's stand up is 100% accurate.

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

former comedian here. i used to be funny.

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BruceDunbarr@reddit

I'm beginning to doubt Mickey Flanagan ever really went out, out.

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ShingledPringle@reddit

A funny story is the basis for a funny bit more often than not.

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scalectrix@reddit

[The Pirate's Adventure Castle my foot.](https://youtu.be/XW3ZADTaUJc?t=33)

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WrongExplanation1065@reddit

It's pretty naive to not think about making stories up. Surely you're an act, so being a character on stage, who can create stories to entertain and make people laugh. Don't even need to be you're real persona.

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Curiousinsomeways@reddit

It's probably a form of candyfloss in that there's a core incident or observation that the application of hot air (embellishment and fiction) plus loads of swirling around results in a tale ten times larger. That way a genuineness makes it through in the delivery. Pros do have writers too.

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two_beards@reddit

Absolutely. I think stand up is one of those things where people outside look at it and think it is all about the performance, when good stand up is actually more about the writing.

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Lammtarra95@reddit

>*Comedian here. I'm forever seeing new acts tell stories that fizzle out at the end. When I suggest thinking of better endings they often say 'but that's what happened'.* You see this with chat show guests as well. Often it is not that a better ending is needed but that the raconteur just needs actually to end at the ending. Too often they ramble on past the climax of the story. A good anecdote, whether in stand-up, on Graham Norton, or for any of us in real life, needs to have a beginning, middle and then end on the punchline. *George Best got drunk and did this*, then STFU for laughter and applause, rather than *George Best got drunk and did this which was typical of George Best who was an alcoholic but what a baller!*

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bopeepsheep@reddit

Greg Davies is really good at this - holding big movie stars rapt as he talks because his stories are very well shaped.

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Ok-Set-5829@reddit

Heard a comedian on the radio (can't remember the name) that said they don't like gigging in their local area because halfway through an anecdote without fail there'll be a shout of "That's not how it happened".

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hidden_john@reddit

I remember seeing Dave Gorman live a few years ago, it was his first tour for quite some time which wasn’t based on some adventure or experience he had gone on for the sake of material. I remember him saying it was nice to be able to lie to the audience again

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GoldenArchmage@reddit

Sarah Millican is married to fellow comedian Gary Delaney - he clearly isn't the boyfriend/husband that she regularly references in her comedy. Most comedians present a persona to the outside world that isn't actually them.

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BeccasBump@reddit

It woild never have occurred to me that I was supposed to think stand-up material was true (except in the very broad sense of "it's funny because it's true").

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bez_lightyear@reddit

So many things have happened to Greg Davis (especially things that he'll never forget as long as he lives) that I swear he must have lived four or five lives

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Itsandyryan@reddit

On the podcast that Richard Herring and Andrew Collins used to do, Collins said he'd met Greg Davies and told him he'd see his recent tour. When Davies asked which night he'd seen, Collins said "The one where you'd accidentally worn the wrong-sized shirt and did all those jokes about it." He was then disappointed to learn that happened every night, and it wasn't an accident. Herring suggested he was a big naive. Incidentally, I mentioned this once to another quite popular comedian, who said he didn't really like that kind of 'lying' to the audience. There's was a difference to him between obvious jokes and that kind of fabrication.

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bez_lightyear@reddit

I've been to see John Shuttleworth (versatile singer-songwriter and keyboard player) on many occasions. His "thing" is that he's a shambolic performer who keeps getting his songs wrong by accident. After attending one gig, I watched a video of him on stage on YouTube and he went wrong at exactly the same point in the same song - it was just a performance, which kind of broke the spell a bit. John is meant to be amateurish and shambolic but the guy who plays him - Graham Fellowes - is a complete professional performer whose "accidents" are perfectly timed comedy.

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Itsandyryan@reddit

To me that's different - I know JS is a character so assume anything he does is deliberate in character.

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

i remember him, his manager is very supportive yet shy

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bez_lightyear@reddit

He was traumatised after a shambolic performance on New Faces.

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

its a shame his Eurovision entry was poorly received. he could gave united Europe under his vision.

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sock_cooker@reddit

Tommy Cooper's magic act was like that

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MrPejorative@reddit

Yes faking improvisation is where I draw the line. It would be like having a scripted heckle.

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Striking_Smile6594@reddit

Years ago back in the late 90s I went to see one the live 'Bottom' shows with Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. Several times they fluffed their lines or otherwise messed up, and those bits always got the loudest laughs. A year or so later I save the video recoding of the same tour, filmed at a different venue. And the exact same lines fluffs where in there. I figured that they worked out earlier in the tour which screwups got the best reactions and incorporated them into the show from then on.

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How_did_the_dog_get@reddit

Penn and Teller talk about how "you wouldn't know the work to make 5 minutes of magic work, it's months and years" the people who make things work, do so because it's their craft. Piff talked about doing a trick and spending thousands on a card shooter because it had to be right and work. I know the bit you're talking about, when you think about it of course that exists, it makes a point they are human, it's funny and silly while they are also funny and silly. They probably rehearsed the show for a week or 2 once or twice a day, after months writing and teasing out parts that worked or not. When I was in theatre we had lots of arena comics warm up, one was maybe their 2nd show of the warm-up but already had done club nights, they still had cards and threw them left or right depending on how well they worked.

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orthomonas@reddit

He's got one bit about realising he was aging when people on the street stopped handing him flyers advertising clubs. That one is true, at least on a general sense. I also choose to believe "vegetables" is true.

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Striking_Smile6594@reddit

Yeah, that one struck close to home for me as well. I mean I had no intention of going into your shitty club anyway. I'm just on my way home to put me feet up with a nice cup of tea, but I'm still insulted dammit!

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Striking_Smile6594@reddit

I think if he was really as terrible a teacher as his stand up act would have us believe he'd never have lasted as long as he did. There's absolutely embellishment in lots of his stories about the kids in drama class. I wonder if any of his actual ex-pupils have talked about it?

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Lying24-7@reddit

Like Lee Mack once said about a story he told “you can’t make it up, well you can and I did”

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lottesometimes@reddit

Would I lie to you would be terrible if everything was true

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Mc_and_SP@reddit

You've just reminded me I need to crack an egg into my bath

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orthomonas@reddit

He ought to see how well he can fool people with a mix of true and false stories. Maybe also how well he can avoid being fooled.

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paulmclaughlin@reddit

For some reason I'm hungry for an egg now

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callmeeeow@reddit

His Pontins story is fucking hilarious 😂 imagine as a comedian making John Cleese double over laughing!

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Phenomenomix@reddit

Rhys James has a decent length joke about a terrible breakup and his segue into the next joke is “I’ve got a new girlfriend now, because that’s how comedy works”

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AdministrativeLaugh2@reddit

Rhys James’ irreverence is brilliant. He found a niche that’s sort of between James Acaster’s schtick and being a “regular” observational standup.

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JackJB94@reddit

That’s what came to my head when I read the title of this post

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irishesteban@reddit

Absolutely not. Every single story any comedian tells is 100% true, otherwise they’d contravene the first rule of membership to the Comedy Hexagon (a sacred organisation for all comedians) and risk expulsion. This rule dictates their entire lives. I know comedians who were unable to marry their true loves, instead choosing an overweight partner with zero sex drive whose mothers were a total battle-axe, thus ensuring plenty of honest material. The life of a comedian is a lonely one, filled only with small (very small for some) pockets of laughter.

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ExpectedDickbuttGotD@reddit

And so many chickens, forced to cross so many roads, it breaks my heart.

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UriGagarin@reddit

I was blessed to finally observe a chicken crossing a road last year I gave up the Internet and became a fisherman on the dead sea.

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UriGagarin@reddit

I actually have seen a chicken crossing the road

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ExpectedDickbuttGotD@reddit

Why did it cross the road?

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DarthJarJarJar@reddit

Not to mention all the men walking into bars. The strain on the healthcare system is terrible.

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firthy@reddit

It’s the abuse by all those mother-in-laws that gets me

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blitzwig@reddit

Now, I won't say my mother-in-law is ugly but she made the chicken cross the road.

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Otherwise_Living_158@reddit

I actually did take a comedian’s wife

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Rhydypennau@reddit

*mothers-in-law

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Dimac99@reddit

Culs de sac

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VerbingNoun413@reddit

Spidersman

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ralphsdad@reddit

Cups-a-soup

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firthy@reddit

Yep, damn it

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Itsandyryan@reddit

How many stand-ups do you guys see nowadays that you think it's mother-in-law one-liners and 'chicken-crossed-the-road' style gags?

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irishesteban@reddit

It many. We’re joking.

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Toon1982@reddit

But the mother in laws are groomed into doing it for the jokes

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VerbingNoun413@reddit

It's generational from their mothers in law.

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nahladel9000@reddit

It's the circle of life

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sc00022@reddit

Milton Jones really does have 7 grandfathers

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Numpty5000@reddit

Except for the one who went downhill quickly.

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irishesteban@reddit

lol.

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

i used to squat with absoluete manics, like actual dangerous people who were sectioned, so naturally my standuo comedy set was full of true stories i had to tone down for the normies

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ShingledPringle@reddit

I almost joined myself, but I just couldn't agree to making a dumbed down, 5 season sitcom about my family material after touring the minimum obligated 24 months. I can't pad out 5 seasons!

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Conscious-Ball8373@reddit

Oly twist: James Acaster sold his banana shop and funded his first comedy tour with the proceeds.

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steerpike1971@reddit

Come on... We already know that he makes his money as an undercover policeman pretending to be James Acaster.

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West_Ad8132@reddit

Yep, there's always money in the banana stand

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VerbingNoun413@reddit

The worst part is getting treatment for depression and being told that there's a funny comedian they should see.

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Steamrolled777@reddit

All those books of fiction are just waiting for someone to make it based on true crime.

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Hambatz@reddit

How’s life in reading

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Independent-Tax-3699@reddit

Dull, as always.

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LordBrixton@reddit

Very funny comment. Are you on the Hex too, brother?

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irishesteban@reddit

2nd rule is never talk about hex club. So sorry, can’t comment.

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Ashgenie@reddit

How do you know the second rule of hex club if you're not a member of hex club?

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srdgbychkncsr@reddit

/r/thatsthejoke

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LordBrixton@reddit

**⬡**

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jonpenryn@reddit

i am sure everything Bob Mortimer says is true.

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mirrorball55@reddit

“I’m a standup comedian, I tell lies. That’s my job. Only bit of truth is: I tell lies”. - Ben Elton, 1989. Very few stories told onstage are untouched by lies. Even stuff that’s broadly true gets embellished, to get laughs. If you’re a standup - you’re aiming to get laughs, over and above the presentation of actual events.

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Aggressive-Creamer@reddit

That's all part of the game. Kevin Hart hasn't wrote his own content since the early 2010s, none of his stories are true lol

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spinningdice@reddit

I'm happy to live in ignorance and take it at face value. If it's made up does it matter to me? Not really, so it can be 'true' for the purposes of the show.

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BenButton123@reddit

Yes. Some more than others though. Russell Howard is a good example.

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ComfortableEqual3436@reddit

I worked with Russel Howard’s dad. He’s a multi millionaire management consultant working in London. It amuses me when he talks about his family like they are folksy, West Country yokels.

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Taear@reddit

You can see this when he was on Taskmaster, he's got the rich guy thing of "I'll just ring someone and they'll sort this out for me"

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

ahhhh another rich kid!

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McFizzleKicks@reddit

I'll finish your sentence. Russell Howard is a good example of a shit comedian.

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sock_cooker@reddit

Maybe, but I've got a weird crush on him. I'd do him till he wasn't wonky eyed anymore

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

he used to roll up to venues where i was performing uninvited to test out his new material, which would push all the other acts up the bill or off it!

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Bl0ob_@reddit

Saw Glenn Moore the week before his new special dropped. When I saw him live he told a story about where the punchline was that his brother was a surgeon but in the special he tells a slightly different story about how his brother is a funeral director. Both of the jokes were funny which is the important thing.

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professorrev@reddit

Stewart Lee wrote a book a few years ago dissecting his old routines and for him at least the vast majority is completely fabricated

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jajwhite@reddit

It's true. It saddened me when I was young to hear someone refer to acting (it might have been Ian McKellan), as "Shouting in the evening". I remember Victoria Wood describe her work as "lying to an audience for laughs". I was less amused when she turned on an interviewer who accused her of being a bit of a northern stereotype and asked if she was going to the Costa Del Sol this Summer. She replied "What do you take me for? Our family goes to Vienna for the festival," which seemed a bit unkind. She had only committed the crime of believing her words after all. But yes Victoria "Brenda" Wood and Geoffrey "Great Soprendo" Durham lived in £10 million houses in Highgate and their daughter is an opera singer. They were considerably more upper-middle class than they painted themselves to be, for all that they started quite short of money in the north.

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Kvark33@reddit

Yes, apart from Bob Mortimer, 100% the majority of his stories are true

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meestah_meelah@reddit

Mate I hate to be the one that breaks this to you but the vast majority of funny anecdotes that normal people tell are fabricated never mind comedians.

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ItsSuperDefective@reddit

If not fabricated wholely, then usually embellished.

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meestah_meelah@reddit

Listen, if I don’t have any interesting stories to tell ever that leads me to believe everyone else is just flat out making up porkies.

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Maleficent_House6609@reddit

I have plenty of go to anecdotes and all are based on things that happened to me but I have embellished every one of them to be actually funny and interesting and over repeated tellings found the funniest ways to tell them. Ripping out bits, condensing timelines and having "quotes" that are close to what was said at the time but tweaked to be a bit if a callback or a better punchline. It's fun! I used to tell rambling stories that went nowhere because I was trying to get all the details right, now I say whatever comes to mind that fits the conversation and works with the flow and just keep the kernal of the story true and avoid any embellishments that are self aggrandising, double down on ones that make me look foolish. It's nice to have a bunch of essentially mini stand up routines in the back picket for hanging out with people I don't have much of a rapport with.

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Makkel@reddit

Some of this thread feels like a modern version of people in the 90's discovering wrestling was actually not real...

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sock_cooker@reddit

Dame Edna, however, was all woman

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noggerthefriendo@reddit

Yes . For example the comedians Sarah Millican and Gary Delaney are married but when one does a routine about “ my husband/wife” the audience know they are telling a story and not recounting something Sarah/Gary actually said or did

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Piccadil_io@reddit

Jokes are essentially funny lies

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CreativismUK@reddit

People have an expectation of the stories being fabricated. Bo Burnham has a bit about it in his special Make Happy, to the point he says “I’m not honest for a second up here” and mocks other comedians for saying things actually happened. I’m a big fan of Josh Johnson who is insanely prolific - he posts a whole new set every single week and I’ve seen people say they’ve seen him in the same city in the same week and he’s done something completely different. He’s coming to London soon and doing four shows in a day, wish I could go to all four and see what’s different. He tells a lot of stories that I doubt are accurate but often for an excellent reason - he’ll launch into a really long story and then at the end liken it to something in the news (the one about hiking and being attacked by a rapid turtle at the top of a mountain being one of my favourites).

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bfsfan101@reddit

If you go to amateur comedy nights, you can see the difference between ‘person telling a story’ and ‘comedian using a real experience to create a routine’. 99% of the stories, real stories just aren’t that neat. They don’t have amazing climaxes, they don’t have that perfect callback or narrative. So you use the real experience to write something much more satisfying for an audience.

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Hampshire-UK@reddit

Jim Davidson isn’t really racist, he just makes up stories about being a bitter alcoholic racist. He is actually in a mixed race relationship, teetotal and is vegan.

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

....and it wasnt punches his ex wife received but flowers and chocolates!

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Mid-Pri6170@reddit

(i used to do (good) standup like 20 years ago) what irks me is seeing some 'funny guy' describe a scene with a load of adjectives thrown but no actual punchline or reason. years ago i was doing 5 shows a week in london, i barely remember my bike ride to the show cause i was coming up with new material, every gag i'd strip it down to its core components and work out the clearest delivery. tldr, i aint got rich parents or oxbridge connectiond so no Edinbourgh comedy festival for me.

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Dry_Pick_304@reddit

Yes of course they make them up. Just like songwriters make up the scenarios that they sing about. Or the scriptwriter for a film or a tv show. Or an author writing a book.

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pr0ph3t_0f_m3rcy@reddit

Stewart Lee's imaginary black wife has a lot of explaining to do.

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Round_Engineer8047@reddit

I was waiting for his name to turn up!

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stoufferthecat@reddit

If you mention Stewart Lee on reddit now, they send you to jail.

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filbert94@reddit

When did this come in?

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McFizzleKicks@reddit

They send you to jail?

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Pristine_Speech4719@reddit

No, mate -- these days, you mentioned Stewart Lee's name, they arrest you and throw you in jail

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McFizzleKicks@reddit

What, they throw you in jail?

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Dry_Pick_304@reddit

Yea... these days.

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Lord_Vetinaris_shill@reddit

And this bit actually happened

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Adventurous_Week_698@reddit

His story about being at school with Richard Hammond does tell us a lot about his relationship with Jeremy Clarkson though

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saccerzd@reddit

I always wondered what Bosilijka Mladic was up to these days.

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SuperTekkers@reddit

Why would you think they are true? They are trying to make you laugh!

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OrangeBeast01@reddit

I love that you're sat there "quietly thinking to yourself if it's true" That's comedy in itself.

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Far-Presentation6307@reddit

Extremely common I suspect. I can't speak for every comedian, but I've seen some medical - themed comedy / writing where the comedian / writer implies that all the events happened to them, whereas in reality it is a compilation of common and amusing medical anecdotes that are passed down from generation to generation of doctor, often getting exaggerated for comedic effect. The sheer number of anecdotes required to fill a book and make it entertaining would take a while career to obtain, and are unlikely to have all happened to a doctor who only practiced medicine/surgery for a small handful of years before leaving to write mediocre books and TV screenplays.

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Alternative_Guitar78@reddit

Eh? well yeah! what do you think, that comedians are some unique type of people that mad stuff happens to all the time? There are going to be some real life experiences in there, but pretty much, they're making it all up, and sorry to tell you this, but they're not coming up with it spontaneously on stage either. they make it up in advance. Essentially it's all a massive scam!

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da316@reddit

I would say more are made up than real. the funny ones anyway

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SwiftianGauntlet@reddit

My wife and a lot of my friends are professional comedians (club and TV level). You can make it up, or observe and exaggerate and embellish (change location, person saying it, etc), it depends on how funny the core event is. 90% of the time, a funny thing somebody saw or said can sound like a ‘guess you had to be there’ moment, a lot less funny in the retelling. That’s why comedians are so skilled at what they do. Their only goal is to make the audience laugh. You get laughs, you get rebooked, you get paid. So the truth is always a tertiary consideration, even in observational comedy. Although, as a sidenote, in some cases, the truth of a story can be so unhinged that the comedian has to dial it down, or even not use it, as it just doesn’t sound believable.

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ThatsJustHowIFeeeeel@reddit

Yes that’s why i can’t watch most. I’m just sat there thinking you’re lying.. this didn’t happen. Then I have to sit there watching an adult lie for an hour. I just watched Matt Rifes latest one. Not only was it lie after lie, but the main “joke” was actually pretty disgusting. His big “reveal” or whatever you would call it, when they go full circle at the end, didn’t even get a single laugh, and he also spent about 20 mins at the end pretending to squeeze a tear out and tap about himself. Absolutely insufferable. Sorry, I digress.

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Howtothinkofaname@reddit

Do you think the same when you watch a TV drama or a play?

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ThatsJustHowIFeeeeel@reddit

No

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Howtothinkofaname@reddit

But none of that happened either.

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ThatsJustHowIFeeeeel@reddit

They don’t pretend it did

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Howtothinkofaname@reddit

I mean the actors very much are pretending. Comedians don’t really pretend either. There’s no expectation they are telling the truth. It’s not some big trade secret that they embellish things or make them up, it’s just part of the art form.

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sock_cooker@reddit

Yeh but the question was about comedians

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ThatsJustHowIFeeeeel@reddit

I answered the question about comedians. Hope this helps!

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StuartHunt@reddit

Imagine believing that all those ancient 'Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman' jokes, are all factually correct.

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Pristine_Speech4719@reddit

I'm a Scotsman and I regularly go to the pub with my Welsh friend and my English friend. I'm also a vicar but TBF I haven't seen my rabbi or imam mates recently.

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orthomonas@reddit

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. What I had said was "Would you like to borrow my cup?""

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funfun151@reddit

The Albion Chronicles? Those stories taught me so much about morality as a lad.

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cleb9200@reddit

Yeah it’s kind of incredulous to me someone has only just learnt that comedians make some things up.

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Waspkiller86@reddit

Their stories are about as truthful as the nonsense redditors spout for karma

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Captain_Swing@reddit

I would like to recommend [Pindos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRI7uwTPJtg), one of Milo Edwards' standup specials. It's about his time living in Russia. I'll leave it to you to guess how much is true.

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ElJayEm80@reddit

Honesty is rarely funny.

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Tute_Sweet@reddit

Half the time it isn't even their own material, never mind a true story. I used to attend a group for freelance writers, and I met a woman there whose whole niche was writing stand-up material for other people. She had the formula that makes a good stand-up story down to an exact science - you need this number of meandering side-threads, a character that the comedian can do a funny voice or accent for, a repeatable element that can be revisited no more than three times, how to write a satisfying pay-off at the end etc. She got paid peanuts to write the stuff you hear at sold out Albert Hall shows.

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Holiday-Tangerine788@reddit

Not that many comedians use writers for stand up, except for roasts, where comedians will hire or buy jokes off writers/other stand ups not participating. The odd time someone will buy a joke off someone if they like it, but doesn’t happen too often.

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VFrosty3@reddit

I’m not even a comedian and I make up stories to try and make people laugh. That’s probably something else I need to bring up with the therapist next week.

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johnlooksscared@reddit

Every film you have ever seen dosent use a script. Everything the actors say was actually said by the real people they play.

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SWITMCO@reddit

Yes, but 'quarter past one' doesn't have the same ring to it

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Banes_Addiction@reddit

Of course. People go to comedy shows to laugh, not to read David Copperfield. But they probably don't need to embellish too much. If you're out gigging on the road meeting new people every night a tonne of ridiculous stuff will really happen.

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accidentalzero@reddit

This might blow your mind, but David Copperfield was also made up

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parttimepedant@reddit

He definitely wasn’t, I saw him make the Statue of Liberty disappear on TV. /s

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McFizzleKicks@reddit

It's still there. Full of shit...

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parttimepedant@reddit

Of course it is, he ~~turned the camera and the set back round on a giant turntable and~~ made it reappear again.

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Not_A_Toaster_0000@reddit

You think the Statue of Liberty is real ?

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Banes_Addiction@reddit

Well, it was until he got there.

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PissedBadger@reddit

You’re not real man!

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HiddenStoat@reddit

Yep, definitely. I saw her fighting the Stay-Puft man in Manhattan once.

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Comfortable-mouse05@reddit

Yeah. As the saying goes print the legend not the truth They make up stuff most of the time to make a funny joke

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PFMortgage@reddit

There's a recent podcast called Wisecrack that explores this a bit - it's about a comedian who does a set about a childhood friend going on a murderous rampage and a true crime podcaster trying to bottom out how much of it is true.

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CompetitiveFox6707@reddit

I'd be heartbroken if a single one of Billy Connolly's stories isn't real.

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Adventurous_Week_698@reddit

His talent was making a seemingly mundane situation hilarious. But I doubt the story about people being washed out of a pub by a huge flood then coming back to demand their drinks were replaced is true.

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SecureVillage@reddit

You wouldn't believe this, but Tom Cruise wasn't actually a fighter jet pilot.

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Anguskerfluffle@reddit

They put you in jail these days.....

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yesbutnobutokay@reddit

I was thrown in my Fench oral exam, back in the 1960s, when I was asked, " Que pensez-vous de la guerre du Vietnam?" Fuck me, I didn't have an opinion in English, let alone French.

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qbnaith@reddit

Yeah I used to do a bit of standup, and I did a bit about working in Sainsbury’s. I have never worked in Sainsbury’s - M&S briefly, but Sainsbury’s sounds funnier. Years later a boyfriend said something like “You’d know that - you used to work there.” And I looked at him utterly baffled before I remembered and was like “Oh! No! I made that up for the joke!”

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Eyeofthemeercat@reddit

I once saw a comedian tell a story that I had read on Reddit. It was one where the guy was in the gym and got into an alteration with a guy who right he was looking at his girlfriend or something but the guy then decided that the comedian was special and instead announced to the entire gym that he was special and meant no harm. I'm obviously making a complete dogs ear of it. Those on Reddit too much might know the story I'm referring to. Somebody might link it. Anyway I thought it was fucking lame to steal a story from Reddit. The comedian will probably read this comment. You know who you are.

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lost_send_berries@reddit

Is it possible the redditor stole the story either from an earlier performance, or another comedian, or it was just going round the zeitgeist already.

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PrinceFan72@reddit

As Billy Connolly once said, "I'm a liar for a living". I thought we all assumed their stories were made up, or greatly exaggerated.

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5c0ttgreen@reddit

Of course most of it is made up. Do you think there are people knocking about who just happen to encounter hilarious experiences regularly?

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The_Lucky_WoIf@reddit

I'm not even a comedian and I exaggerate stories for comic effect, can't say I fully make up stories but if it's what got me paid I certainly would.

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WrongExplanation1065@reddit

Like thinking that Robert Downey Jr isnt actually Iron Man

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Borks2070@reddit

Wait. Are you telling me that parrot wasn't really dead, and that one guy didn't actually need four candles ? I shall be writing to my MP about these scandalous fabrications.

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Jokesaunders@reddit

Not only is it fine, it is by far the norm. Not only that the ones that are actually telling true stories are definitely enhancing them with embellishments, or combining events, or in some way authoring material. If real life was not only funny, but naturally fell into a the structure of comedic storytelling, anyone could be a comedian.

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Peanut0151@reddit

It's all true. In fact, I waa one of the kids caught by the police for drinking battery acid while my friend snorted fireworks. I got charged, but they let my friend off

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sock_cooker@reddit

My friend died of heartburn. I can't believe gav is gone

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theloniousmick@reddit

Do you watch would I lie to you? I'd be tempted to tell that little voice to shut up life will be much more enjoyable. I often think along similar lines with people o line who forth at the mouth to call something fake, I just see it as an amusing story and move on.

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JackXDark@reddit

I do kinda believe them when they scratch their heads and ask you if you’ve ever noticed something.

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Frightlever@reddit

Baby Reindeer, the thread.

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Jonesy7256@reddit

They tell a story for the laughs not because it is true. Did you really need to ask this?

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Remarkable_Figure95@reddit

"I could never be a comedian, nothing funny ever happens to me"

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stoufferthecat@reddit

I was going to try some of that self-deprecating comedy, but I don't think I'd be very good at it.

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CapriSonnet@reddit

I have something to tell you about songwriters buddy.

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Agitated-Tourist9845@reddit

Is this your first day on earth?

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PokemonGoing@reddit

"Randy buys a bookshelf on Gumtree" springs to mind here.

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Remarkable_Figure95@reddit

Even normal people embellish a story to be funnier. Also, you do realise a comedy show is scripted, the same - yes, carefully written - stories and jokes told night after night? Also Santa isn't real.

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amcoffeecup@reddit

This reminds me of the Stewart Lee bit where he finishes a story rhen breaks the fourth wall, looking at the audience and saying “you know what, that didn’t happen. If sort of happened, but I changed the ending for comic effect. What actually happened is just bleak.” Then proceeds to tell another invented version that’s even funnier.

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mondayfig@reddit

Doesn’t matter to me. If I’d only watch TV and movies of things that are 100% truthful and real, there’s not a whole lot of content left.

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JimmyBallocks@reddit

All jokes have to be true, yes. This is why in previous decades if you were English you were forbidden from walking into a pub unless accompanied by somebody from Ireland and somebody from Scotland.

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Not_A_Toaster_0000@reddit

Well, yes. It was part of the process to turn us into the United Kingdom

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Jerico_Hill@reddit

I'm shocked you think they don't make shit up. Their job is to be funny not truthsayers.

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OldLondon@reddit

Errrm….

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bopeepsheep@reddit

I've hung out with a few comedians over the years, and I'm pretty sure I was in one of their acts for a while. I can only say 'pretty sure' because for all I know that situation happened more than once, and ended slightly differently in that case. But if it *was* my exact story, then I'll say that I think their part in it was very much affected by 'could this go in my act? What will happen if I do this instead of that? Is it funnier?' And bluntly, 'screw your feelings, this is good material' isn't uncommon with comedians.

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Old-Law-7395@reddit

Goddammit, are you telling me "the machine" story never happened??

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Sedlescombe@reddit

why would you think it’s true.?

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quiglter@reddit

Matt Richardson recently answered this question: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRrq3Vmw/

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NOm15@reddit

If it makes you laugh - does it really matter?

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mediadavid@reddit

I once heard a comedian say something like "thats a completely true story that actually happened, except for the funny bit at the end."

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Heathy-Heatherson@reddit

I think mostly there is a story in there that happened either to themselves or someone they know, which is built upon and exaggerated to make it funnier.

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Professional_Clue800@reddit

Yes. But not just comedians, famous people do this all the time as well. All those stories in interviews and in talk shows are made up half the time.

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SeoulGalmegi@reddit

Is this even a question? haha

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Wolfdarkeneddoor@reddit

I've had some pretty ridiculous things happen to me, no embellishments needed. But conedians will probably embroider their stories for comedic effect.

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bsnimunf@reddit

They must do. Have you ever watched the panel show would I lie to you theres definitely "true" stories on that which are just made up. See

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sock_cooker@reddit

I'm not a comedian but I have loads of funny stories from things I've noticed or overheard. I think when you have an eye for the comic, you notice things- a little embellishment on top might be all you need, and I guess you'll include the thing you meant to say but didn't think up till you got home.

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Afinkawan@reddit

Yes. That's how jokes work. Did you think that chickens actually cross roads all that frequently, or people with strange names are constantly knock-knocking on random doors just to introduce themselves?

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dbxp@reddit

Yes, it's an act

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Both-Friend-4202@reddit

I've known a few 'stand ups' in the UK.. because I used to work at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.. Basically they are keen observers of their family and friends who are likely to end up in a comedy routine..unless they put their foot 🦶 down! 😂

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Immediate_Machine_92@reddit

The better the story, the less I believe it. Some of what comedians say in their stand-up routines might be true, but in general I don't assume that it is.

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Adorable-Ad9093@reddit

I feel like half of the ones I see on tele when I listen to the stories and I'm like yeah man that's not real 😂😂😂 most comedians are super intelligent, it's probably just stories they've created.. which is mainly why I prefer the comedians that interact with the audience rather than just talking a rant for the whole show!

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rybnickifull@reddit

A decent chunk of them aren't even using their own personalities, let alone real life anecdotes.

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OldBoyShenanigans@reddit

I would imagine that 99% of it would be "reworded" to make it funny. Maybe something similar happened in their life, but they're just reworking it.

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