They’re called rhetorical questions

One of the first tricks I learned in comedy was to ask questions to set up jokes.  It gets the crowd involved, helps people get into the right mind set, etc.  One of the problems is that you have to be prepared for people to answer just about any way.  I do a joke asking who hates their jobs?  Usually, the answer is overwhelmingly yes.  Once I did that joke at an office party.  I realized the bosses were all there, so I made a comment how everyone should kick each other under the table instead of answering.  In other words, answers (or lack thereof) can cause some really funny or horribly awkward problems.  I asked a guy that question once and he told me he just got laid off.  I paused, then told him it still probably sucked.  He agreed.

The worst, however, is the person who answer every single question like the comic is conducting an interview.  I had a show Friday and there was a very drunk or very dumb middle aged lady that decided to answer each and every question in full, then add commentary.  My pal Bob mentioned marriage, then asked in passing who was married.  This lady yelled out, “Marriage is an institution, who wants to be stuck in an institution?  That’s why I got divorced!”  She was actually louder than Bob, who had a microphone.  He asked her if she was so smart, why’d she get married in the first place?  She didn’t hear because she was still talking.

Right on through Bob’s set, into Darrell’s set, then at mine she was petering out.  The shrill voice was probably getting to her own brain, which was probably shutting down motor functions, much like the poor bastard she used to be married to.  After all the interruptions, the insults hurled at her from the stage and a few from the crowd, she finally shut the hell up.  I was glad, because I was considering honoring the Ultimate Warrior and doing an overhead press to close my set out.  Actually, she was so annoying, I was disappointed.