Moratorium

I have been watching a lot of sketch/stand up/short film/live comedy lately and I've noticed a few things that get over-used and are no longer funny. Some of them I'm not sure ever were funny, so I thought I'd make a list of things for people to reference when writing or performing comedy. I want people to know what things they can avoid simply because it's not worth anyone's time. These situations/topics have been milked of all their comedic value and are not worth using.

1. The Patient / Psychiatrist Scenario.
How many goddamn movies/books/scenes have we seen a patient sitting on a couch forwarding a plot by slowly revealing bullshit story lines to his psychiatrist? Too many. It is no longer a worthy plot tool. Don't do it. It has been done. Try something new.

2. Pot Humor.
Good lord. How many movies did Cheech & Chong make in the 80's? Twenty? Has pot humor ever been funnier than the first time you saw it? No. Has pot humor changed at all since the first time you saw it? No. Pot makes people slow and/or lazy. People that smoke pot don't react quickly. People that smoke pot get hungry and are not as smart as everyone else. We get it. Stop Doing It. It's not funny.

3. Religion is CrAzY!?!
Everyone who believes in any certain religion sure is different than people who don't believe in any religion at all. Am I right? Who cares? Move on. You pointing out that people who have a certain religious belief is boring. I get it. People believe in things based solely on faith is weird. Hey, I think that too. Stop 'preaching to the choir' (ha ha...ugh.) You're not changing anyone's opinion and it's no longer funny. I just stopped listening to myself.

4. Hipsters sure are jerks.
It's true. We know. Big deal.

5. People from the south like guns and trucks.
Yes. And airplane food tastes funny. What's your point?

6. I call my scene partner "Sis" or "Uncle" to better establish our relationship.
This isn't used to make things funny (always) but it is over-used in poorly written short films and improv scenes and I want it to stop. People don't talk that way in real life, why make your movies or scenes worse by cheapening the dialogue? Stop it.

Feel free to add to this list.