Stand-Up requires High IQ

[unfrufru]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...751964,00.html



Did you know that comedians need a high IQ?
By Jack Malvern, Arts Reporter
HAVE you heard the one about the stupid comedian? No? Well, you’re not likely to. A Mensa test organised by The Times suggests that intelligence is a prerequisite for a career as a stand-up comic.

We asked 12 comedians at the Edinburgh Fringe — including Stewart Lee, who co-wrote Jerry Springer — the Opera — to sit a formal test and found that they were overwhelmingly smarter than average.

NI_MPU('middle');Four were automatically invited to join Mensa and three were told that they were borderline candidates who would probably gain membership after a second test. Half of the comedians were in the top 3 per cent of brainboxes in Britain and one, Natalie Haynes, was in the top 1 per cent.

On the most common scale for measuring IQ, a score of 130 or more puts a candidate in the top 2 per cent in the country. Haynes, whose show Run or Die involves a rapidly spoken monologue about an urban dystopia and parrots’ IQ, came top of the 12 with a score of 134.

She believes that high intelligence is important for the Fringe, where cerebral comedy is rewarded, but it can be a hindrance on the club circuit. “It would be difficult to do a show without coming from a clever base point,” she said, “but when I started out people would say ‘You’re too clever’.

“One of the only places you can be clever and funny is Edinburgh. It’s not true that I’m too clever to play a club, but I’ve been told so often, I’ve given up trying to argue against it.”

Cerebral comedians often hide their intelligence behind a comedy persona, she said. Al Murray, who graduated from Cambridge University with one of the highest marks in his subject, has become a highprofile comedian with his character of the pub landlord. “It is less threatening,” Haynes said. “People are more likely to like Al Murray, pub landlord, than Alastair Murray, history graduate.”

Rob Deering, who scored 130, said that stand-up attracts geeks. “There is a train spotterish aspect of stand-up. There are so many people on the circuit who collect stamps or beer mats or whatever. I like to think I’m a rock star but I am a bit nerdy when it comes to film knowledge.”

It is unusual to find someone who does not display quick wit on the circuit, he said. “You expect a certain level of speed and wit. Every now and then you meet a comedian who isn’t keeping up with the dressing-room banter and you think: ‘Ooh, that’s unusual’.”

Caroline Garbatt, a spokeswoman for Mensa, said that writing comedy could be a way of sharpening the mind. “Comedians are exercising their brains on a daily basis,” she said. “They are not doing mundane, repetitive activities. The way they look at the world and find ways to make everything amusing requires intelligence. You only have to look at David Baddiel and the That Was the Week That Was team to see that comedy is full of intelligent people.”

Colin Cooper, senior lecturer in psychology at Queen’s University Belfast and a consultant for the BBC’s Test the Nation, said that verbal reasoning was a very good indicator of intelligence. “One thing you do need to be a comedian is to be able to think on your feet,” he said. Stewart Lee, who was keen to retake the test to become a Mensa member, said that IQ questions tested only one aspect of comedy. “Another fantastic kind of comedy is farting and falling over,” he said. “There is no part of the Mensa test that determines when would be a good time to fart.”

[Spawn of Satan]

Interesting, but I find they are missing one word, sucessful. sucessful comedians are very smart but I've met a shitload of idiotic amatuers

[Mythor]

The reporter clearly knows shit-all.
Yes, 7 out of the 12 had "Mensa" or near-Mensa levels of intelligence, but that still leaves 5 others - where did they come in? Were they even close?
And what was the correlation between IQ levels and the success of a comedian. Stewart Lee is obviously pretty successful, so he'd be one candidate for a meaningful comparison - but the article doesn't say where he came in. It says he is keen to retake the test to become a member of Mensa, from which we're obviously supposed to assume he was one of the 3 who would probably get in. But it does not actually say that.

A high IQ may be useful to a comedian, but it is abundantly clear that it isn't necessary.

[Gutter Monkey]

I don't get it.

[Renee_Turner]

Originally Posted by unfrufru

..stand-up attracts geeks.

Hmm, so either I'm a geek, or I may attract geeks. Score!

My IQ, when I had it tested, was 120. So no rocket science for me.

[unfrufru]

now if u have to be smart to do standup, what about watching it? my IQ at last count was mid 140's. mind u i've had a lot of drugs and alcohol since then.

AND I AM NOT A GEEK

[Renee_Turner]

You collect figurines.

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by Renee_Turner

Hmm, so either I'm a geek, or I may attract geeks. Score!

My IQ, when I had it tested, was 120. So no rocket science for me.

120 puts you into the range just below 'genius'. Check it here.
Anything above 100 is good. Anything below 100 is not so good.

[unfrufru]

Originally Posted by Renee_Turner

You collect figurines.

that makes me a collector, not a geek.

[Spawn of Satan]

IQ tests are flawed, the questions vary with each test, they don't test creativity and they don't allow for situational behavior.


Don't think I say this because I mark badly, I mark quite well, I just know the system is FUCKED

[Spawn of Satan]

Originally Posted by unfrufru

that makes me a collector, not a geek.

I've seen your room, you're a geek, be proud.

[Renee_Turner]

The biggest moron I know (apparently) gets consistently good IQ scores and has (apparently) been invited to join Mensa. Course, he's a dickhead and is full of shit, so I'm not sure I believe any of it. His latest stroke of brilliance - [sic] "Drop something heavy on Steal Caps and you can kiss you toes goodbye. the steel will actualy cut your toes off!"

to which someone replied (and oh how I love them for it): "Yeah I heard the same thing! I also heard that helmets crush your brain if you're wearing one in an accident!"

[sara]

Originally Posted by Renee_Turner

The biggest moron I know (apparently) gets consistently good IQ scores and has (apparently) been invited to join Mensa.

Ahh intelligence in the IQ/good marks at school form doesn't always mean intelligence in the real world. My entire school proved that.

[Alisso]

I don't trust standard IQ tests cause they test knowledge, rather than actual intelligence and potential for learning. I prefer the multiple forms of intelligence theory.

I think intelligent people make better comedians, but I wouldn't say you NEED to be intelligent to be a comedian. Depends on the type of comedy, some comedy is based entirely on stupidity

[Gutter Monkey]

Most of those 'stupid' comics deliberately dumb down their act. In fact, most comedians I know work down to some degree.

In my experience, the majority of working comedians are of above average intelligence. (A lot of those might not be that far above the average, but they're still there.)
And some comedians are the smartest people I've seen. Anyone wanna debate Daniel Kitson's intelligence?