I want to laugh every ten seconds

It’s not a talent show, it’s a vulnerability contest.

That’s what today’s audiences crave. Nobody cares how impressive someone is. There’s nothing relatable or interesting about technical skill.

The appeal today is in moments that feel genuine and personal. Our culture rewards authenticity over ability. Talent shows might create admiration, but vulnerability contests create connection.

It’s almost an inversion of the past. Used to be, the cream rose to the top. The best guitarist or singer won. But now the cream matters less than the cracks.

It’s one of the reasons I stopped going to stand up comedy shows. Because the modern comedian’s material is optimized for emotional depth, rather than wits and bits. There’s no punchlines or cleverness. It’s just a public therapy session. Comedians get up on stage to trauma vomit. Sharing all their personal insecurities in the hopes of relating to their audience.

Okay boomer, jokes are so nineties. Feelings are what’s in fashion. Everything has to be a personal revelation or social commentary now.

This is how art has evolved. Modern audiences have decided they want vulnerability instead of talent. Which is fine. To each their own. Me, I like the old school observational humor. I want wordplay and surprise and joy. I want to laugh every ten seconds.

I feel the same way about comedy as I do about music. I want to hear somebody shred. I want a singer whose voice I can feel in my balls. I want melody, structure and poetry. Not just some teenager looping a single chord with vocals that sound like a cheap hooker having sex.

Impress me. Blow me away with your talent. Make some music that is so good, that when I experience it, I say to myself, holy shit, I need to go home and write a song, right now.

I don’t want to sit in the audience and think, wow, this guy sucks, I could totally do that. I want admiration. I want to see talent oozing out of someone’s pores. I want to see a trained professional make a skill that took ten thousand hours to master look easy.

Because that inspires me to up my creative game.

Tweedy wrote about this in his memoir. Jeff said:

The thing that pushed me to start writing songs is the same thing that compels me to keep writing songs today. I listen to music, new records, old favorites, the radio, anything, until I feel like I can’t take it anymore, I have to make something or I’ll lose my mind. It’s as simple as that. Even when I believe I’ll never be able to make something even remotely as perfect or beautiful as what I’m hearing, I can’t just sit there and let that challenge go unanswered. The highest purpose of any work of art, to inspire someone else to save themselves through art.

What do you crave? Are you looking for the talent show or the vulnerability contest?