Wanda Sykes: Not Normal
A selection of Wanda’s routines in her Netflix special. Underline indicates where the audience laughs.
Setup: Let me just start by saying, if you voted for Trump… and you came to see me… (pause for long applause)
Punch: you fucked up again.
Setup: This shit’s not normal, y’all. It’s not normal. Come on.
Punch 1: The lying, the tweeting, the playdates with dictators.
Punch 2: It’s not normal that I know that I’m smarter than the president.
Setup: That’s not normal. Come on. In the Mueller investigation, how does he not know that he’s Individual Number One? Come on. Everybody who’s been indicted or going to jail, Papadopoulos, Gates, Flynn, Manafort, it all says in the Mueller report that they co-conspired with Individual Number One.
Punch: Motherfucker, that’s you!
Setup: if everybody you come in direct contact with… gets herpes… …wouldn’t you be like…
Punch 1: (acts confused)
Punch 2: “Am I giving everybody herpes?”
Setup: But no. President Trump tweets… “All clear.” “Too bad for Individual Number One. Hashtag sad.”
Punch 1: No, motherfucker. You have herpes!
Punch 2: You are patient zero.
Setup: Trump, he doesn’t even look presidential. It looks like he’s doing an impersonation of a president. He doesn’t know what to do with his hands. Even the way he stands there, he’s just like…
Punch 1: (acts out with stiff shoulders and hands)
Punch 2: He looks like those things that you put out in front of the car wash. You know.. (acts out)
Setup: We respect Bobby Brown. Nobody respects Trump. You know how I know they don’t respect him? Because they let him walk up on Air Force One with toilet paper on the back of his shoe.
Punch 1: You would stop a stranger to get toilet paper off their shoe.
Punch 2: I’ve been in airports and, like, tracked people down for ten gates (acts out) to get this toilet paper off your shoe.
Setup: I bet you there’s been murderers on their way to the electric chair… passing the guards with toilet paper on their shoes… and the guards are like, “Yeah, you motherfucker, you deserve all of this. I hope…
Punch 1: Oh, hold up, man, hold on. Let me get this off your shoe.”
Punch 2: “Can’t let you go out like that.”
Punch 3: “It’s embarrassing, man.”
Setup: Trump passed Marine guards… on his way. Marine guards. These people see everything. They are the sharpest motherfuckers on the planet.
Punch 1: But they let him ascend (acts out)…up to Air Force One,
Punch 2: the plane that represents America…
Punch 3: with toilet paper on the back of his shoe.
Punch 4: And they just stood there. (acts out)
Punch 5: “You see that?” “Yeah, I see it. I see it.”
Punch 6:“I think it’s a good look for him.”
Setup: And he’s always on Air Force One. Never in the White House. Always running off, Mar-a-Lago or somewhere, costing us all kind of money.
Punch 1: Hey, I was like, “We should just put the White House on Airbnb.”
Punch 2: “Maybe we’ll get somebody good in there.”
Key Takeaways
- Find your unique materials.
- (Wanda talks about race, monopause, being with her family, no one else can do her materials)
- The importance of having a clear attitude about your subject
- Use pause as a way to extend your punchline. Give your audience time to laugh
- Effective setup. No unnecessary words. Short and concise.
- Act outs are effective ways to serve as punchline
- Even within act outs you have have multiple punch, like a roll
- You can have effective rolls, i.e. multiple punlines with one setup
- Arrange your set by subjects
