Timing is everything.

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.