McKee: Heckling the performer

Answer choices

1. A

   Disagree8% picked this

   Comedy venues should tolerate audience members’ heckling

   We don't have explicit disagreement from Chapman, but on this question, we're going off a standard of "most supportable". McKee thinks clubs should not try to prevent heckling (i.e. they should tolerate it). Chapman would potentially say they should not tolerate it, because it's mostly a distraction from the performance.

   8%
2. B

   Disagree9% picked this

   Stand-up comedians’ responses to heckling should be considered part of their

   There is only contextual support for either party's take on this, but it seems to speak to the thrust of their disagreement. McKee thinks that heckling is a time honored tradition; comics are ready for it and use to entertain the audience. Why, it's practically part of the show! Chapman is saying, "No, comics are aware it might happen, but they don't want it to happen. They tolerate it and try to humorously deflect, but it's usually just fun for the heckler and distracting for everyone else".

   9%
3. C

   Correct61% picked this

   The best stand-up comedians are able to respond entertainingly when they are heckled

   Why this is right

   Neither author makes it seem like being able to handle hecklers well is a trait of the best comedians, but it's fair to think that McKee would agree with this. Since he thinks that dealing entertainingly with hecklers is part of the job of being a comedian, he would think that someone good at the job would be able to entertainingly deal with hecklers. But Chapman would potentially agree with this. There isn't any support for Chapman saying that "great stand-ups are unable to respond entertainingly to a heckler". Chapman is acting like, "Sure, maybe they still get a laugh from dealing with the heckler, but they don't want to be dealing with the heckler."

   Skill tested: Agree/Disagree · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   61%
4. D

   Disagree13% picked this

   Many audience members at comedy venues enjoy watching stand-up comedians respond

   This gets to the issue of McKee saying "it's part of the tradition; the performers respond entertainingly (the crowd enjoys). Comedy clubs should allow it." Meanwhile, Chapman is saying "it's tolerated, not enjoyed. It's a distraction from the performance", and most relevantly, "it's usually only fun for the heckler". Technically, Chapman's statements leave plenty of room for him to agree with this answer choice, but when we're comparing our five options, this at least has some support for disagreement, whereas the correct answer (C) had no support for disagreement.

   13%
5. E

   Disagree9% picked this

   It is unwise for comedy venues to disregard longstanding traditions of

   This is really a copy of (A) -- whether clubs should / shouldn't tolerate heckling. M would agree with this answer. He thinks heckling is a longstanding tradition and it would be unwise for clubs to suddenly ban/disregard this tradition. Meanwhile, Chapman thinks heckling is mostly a distraction enjoyed only by the heckler, so he would be fine with comedy clubs disregarding this longstanding tradition. This is another answer choice that has pretty weak disagreement support. I would never expect this to be a correct answer on a normal Disagree question, but it's more supportable that they disagree on this than that they disagree about (C).

   9%