Rule-breaking stories

From December 21 memos:

In addition to noting that the time limit rule is difficult to enforce and sometimes willingly bent, I’ve wondered about how other rules might be enforced, like how tellers should be sharing true, personal stories. I also sense that at events like both Carapace and The Moth, although the storyteller has a lot of license and is allowed to make the audience uncomfortable, the storyteller shouldn’t be mean. Witnessing the following at The Moth was both uncomfortable and fascinating:

Matan was the last storyteller. He said he was a paratrooper in Israel. He was in a bar in Tel Aviv and met a girl. He got her number and she agreed that he could come by her place that Saturday before he went back to the army. Her dad opened the door and started talking about what a good guy Matan was. The gir came in in a wheel chair. He hadn’t realized she had a wheelchair when he met her. Her dad told her to take their van which was specially equipped. They went to a movie and she parked her chair in the aisle. A guy tripped over her during the show. At the end of the night she asked him to drive to the park and then said she had always wanted to do it on a swing. Matan was getting his second time warning at this point. He said they did what they did on the swing. He took her home and her father said he was a really good guy. Most guys just left her on the swing. As Matan walked down, Benjamin said “I hate him.

The MC had the one-liners come up. He almost jumped straight to the winner without getting scores for Matan, but the producer reminded him. One of the scores was a 4. I’d say that’s a message, since they should get a 5 just for getting on stage.

I didn’t realize this story was a joke until the punchline. Talking to others afterwards, they knew earlier on as they’ve heard a version of the joke before. It is clear that this story is neither personal, nor true. And it is extremely distasteful. This just isn’t a Moth story.

In this case, the low scores seemed to be a kind of enforcement of the rules. The audience doesn’t approve and this type of story won’t be rewarded.

In thinking about the relative safety of the storyteller and audience, it occurs to me that even though this storyteller was reprimanded (in a way) by the low score, he still got to tell the story. The audience still had to hear it. Although the few restrictions placed on storytellers give the audience some expectation of the kind of stories they should be hearing, this is no guarantee. Someone can still get on stage and make the audience very upset or uncomfortable once. They may not get a second chance, but they can do it once. I haven’t seen this kind of thing happen often (egregious rule-breaking) but the audience can not feel 100% secure that it won’t happen.

The impact the story had on some listeners can be seen in Benjamin’s facebook post the next day: