This article is from the The Complete Guide To Hack Stand-Up Comedy, by Steven Rosenthal and Steve Silberberg (stevebo@onramp.net) with numerous contributions by others.
Have you ever noticed, how a lot of stand up comedian's seem to say "have
you ever noticed" all the time?
Observational Comedy was pioneered by Carlin in the 70's and brought to
life in the 80's, an era where no topic was too mundane and "the little
things in life" became more appealing than "The Big Picture". In fact some
topics were so trivial that comics had to feign hatred just to keep the
sets interesting (as in: "You know what really pisses me off? Nail
Clippers!")
I won't go so far as to declare all observational comedy hack, but the
passion has gone out of the love affair. And there are certainly a lot of
"little things" that already have been noticed once too often. Like:
 
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