Arts & Entertainment

Introduction

Lesson time 05:37 min

Meet your new instructor: writer, director, producer, and stand-up extraordinaire Judd Apatow. In your first lesson, Judd tells you what you’ll learn, why he’s teaching, and why we need comedy now more than ever.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Introduction

Judd Apatow

Teaches Comedy

Judd Apatow teaches you how to write, direct, produce, and perform comedy for film and television.

Preview

MAN: Marriage is like an unfunny, tense version of "Everybody Loves Raymond," but it doesn't last 22 minutes, it lasts forever. WOMAN 1: I slept at the doctor's place last night. WOMAN 2: Oh my god, because you were like blackout drunk? WOMAN 1: No, that's the thing. I was dead sober. I had like two drinks. Three, max. Four, now that I'm tallying. MAN: So what do you think, should we have sex tonight? WOMAN: Ugh. I'm just really constipated. MAN 1: What? You can get pinkeye from farting in a pillow? MAN 2: Totally. MAN 1: That's awesome. - Alright, how's it look? How's the James Perse shirt looking? Can you see the gut? Is it hiding the gut? Do I have breasts? No breasts? I got this shirt just so you don't think I have breasts. All right, let's do it. Hi, I'm Judd Apatow, and welcome to my MasterClass. You've already watched Martin Scorsese. You've seen Christina Aguilera. Has she done one? I think she did. She may not have. But now it's time to learn lessons from me. Why are you here? You're here because you want to learn something about comedy, how to make it, how to direct it, how to write it, how to perform it. And I'm going to tell you everything I know. I shouldn't. I should hold some of it back so that I'm always better at it than you are. But I am not. I'm going to give you everything because I'm too lazy, and my memory is too bad to try to figure out what not to tell you. So pay attention. Don't be lazy. Put in the real effort. Take notes. Download all of my movies and pay for them. And maybe I'm about to change your life. What are we going to learn in this MasterClass, you're asking? Well, we're going to learn about many aspects of comedy. We're going to learn about my history. How I got into it. My story. We're going to talk about different projects that I've worked on, and I'll try to explain what I did and how I did it. We'll discuss stand-up comedy, writing, acting, directing, performing, producing. And I will also explain to you how not to act like an asshole so no one wants to work with you. So this is part comedy lecture, part Tony Robbins-inspirational life coaching. And I'm hoping that all the comedy nerds out there will watch this and instead of just being a nerd viewer, they will become a nerd creator. We need you to make comedy because life fucking sucks right now. You know it does. You can feel it in your bones. And every day you say, please, take me away, take me to my happy place. What is your happy place? It might be your favorite movie. Maybe it's "Four Weddings and a Funeral." Maybe it's "Porky's." So maybe it would be great if you made that "Porky's" or "Four Weddings and a Funeral" for someone else so they can get a break from this horrid existence. Why am I teaching this MasterClass? On one level you might say cash. Money to buy stuff, to buy stuff I don't need. To park wherever I want to park. Get a ticket, not care. To order that extra appetizer that ...

About the Instructor

No joke: at age 15, Judd Apatow took a dishwashing job at a comedy club to watch the acts. Today, he’s the comedic genius behind hits including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Bridesmaids, and Freaks and Geeks. In his first-ever online comedy class, the Emmy Award winner teaches you how to create hilarious storylines, write great stand-up, and direct movies that leave audiences laughing.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow teaches you how to write, direct, produce, and perform comedy for film and television.

Explore the Class