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The comedian can put the punchline out there, but it's the audience that receives it - and has to get it.

I don't write punch lines.

I'm kind of a nerd. A square. And I'm terrible at telling jokes. I always forget the punch line.

With the stand-up comic on TV, whether it's Seinfeld or Cosby or Roseanne, more important than their knowledge of how to tell a joke is their knowledge of themselves, or the persona they've created as themselves. So that when you're in a room with writers, you can say, 'Guys, that's a funny line, but I wouldn't say it.'

If you have the right voice and the right delivery, you're cocky enough, and you pound down on the punch line, you can say anything and make people laugh maybe three times before they realize you're not telling jokes.

I'm not good at telling a joke, but I can say a line in a certain way that makes people uncomfortable because they don't know whether to laugh or not, and I love that comedy.

It's hard for a comic to be joking when your lines can't be funny.