Quote · Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe
S12 EP48: Stop me if you've heard this one before
Where this was said
The Comedians' Comedian Misquote & Rob's Theory of Comedy
At 16:12 · chapter starts 13:40
Josh reveals that Stuart Goldsmith, host of the Comedians' Comedian podcast, cited him in a recent episode with Sarah Pascoe as having said 'if a joke reveals a wider truth then it is true.' Josh had to text Goldsmith to query whether he ever actually said it. Rob's advice is categorical: if someone is quoting you saying something that sounds intelligent, cling to it. This segues into a fascinating exchange about the nature of comedy. Rob articulates his theory that good comedians find subjects the audience has strong unacknowledged opinions about and highlight them — but great comedians then relentlessly exhaust every angle of that discovery, 'slapping every conceivable bit of arse cheek' around it until nothing is left unexplored. Rob also references an AI Instagram account that scraped his book and now annually posts the thrilling quote 'Rob Beckett on Brothers: I had 4 brothers, it was a lot of fun' — a sentence which is merely the opening of an entire chapter.
Stuart Goldsmith quoted Josh Widdicombe on his Comedians' Comedian podcast as saying 'if a joke reveals a wider truth then it is true.' Josh's reaction: he doesn't think he said it, and more importantly, he doesn't know what it means. Rob's advice: cling to it regardless.
Josh Widdicombe was quoted on the Comedians' Comedian podcast as saying 'if a joke reveals a wider truth then it is true' — a quote he doesn't remember saying and doesn't understand.
A great comedian doesn't just find the truth an audience didn't know they held — they then slap every conceivable angle of that truth until nothing is left unexplored. Rob Beckett's theory of comedy, delivered with characteristic flair, doubles as an accidental compliment to Josh Widdicombe.
