The Thirds Rule

I was watching Studio 60 earlier, as usual enjoying it on the whole but lamenting Sorkin's lack of comedic writers on his staff. I started thinking about styles of comedy on sketch show and broke it down into three categories: nonchallenging material (slapstick, poop jokes), challenging material (serious political humor, satire) and avant-garde material (absurdist humor, genre-busting humor). I think a good sketch show needs about equal amounts of all three: you need to make people laugh comfortably, make them laugh while cringing and make them laugh without understanding why. A good multiuser game needs the same sort of diversity of experience: draw them in, challenge them and expand their horizons.