PREFACE: I have decided to branch out from the strictly writing beginning of this blog.
So, I went and saw a friend of mine do 10 minutes of stand-up at Flappers in Burbank. She was easily the funniest person all night. One of the big problems I had with two of the comedians was the fact that their pop culture references were horribly dated. One of them was telling a joke about how music was telling her to do things (i.e.: Get that dirt of your shoulder). Now, I am pretty much the whitest man who has ever lived, but even I can tell you that Jay-Z's "Black Album" came out in 2003 (actually I thought it was "The Blueprint" (2002), but Wikipedia corrected me, but I was at least close). Then the next comedian came up and made a joke about "Jenny from the Block". I thought to myself I think that was the same album as "My Love Don't Cost a Thing", which video had Ben Affleck. Since that video, Affleck has dumped J Lo; met Jennifer Garner; Married Jennifer Garner; Had at least one kid; and directed two movies (as well as acting in I don't know how many). The point I want to make is that if you are going to make a pop culture reference in your jokes, make sure it's still in the popular culture. If you seriously want to be comedian, you might want to write new jokes once every 5 years.
Actually, this did turn out to be about writing. I guess the lesson I learned was be careful about putting pop culture references in your script, because by the time the movie gets made, they will probably be dated.
