Thoughts on Rupert's monologue

The comedy was only ok, middle of the road stuff, but there are a few additional points to make.

Firstly, it should be pointed out that the comedy was really just him talking about his terrible upbringing, which is what made his story all the more tragic. His coping mechanism for his shitty childhood was in trying to turn it into a giant joke, but the further he went into his monologue the more uncomfortable it became, which leads me into the second point...

...do we know for sure that the audience were laughing? I think it's deliberate that we never actually see their reactions, we only hear their laughter much like an earlier scene in which he is rehearsing his routine in his basement. As there are multiple other 'fantasy' scenes played out from his imagination, how much can we really be sure happened? The laughter, and his fame and fortune afterwards, could all just be more of his fantasy. That's open to interpretation.

Lastly though, I find it somewhat ironic that his uncomfortable brand of comedy is something that was quite ahead of its time. The highly personal almost self-offensive brand of comedy he utilises doesn't at all match the kind of comedy a show of that nature would have and I can't imagine it would have come across as funny, either on the fictional Jerry Langford show or to the audiences watching this movie upon release. However it is a style of dark comedy that became quite a bit more popular 10-15 years later. The reason I say I find this ironic is that he instructs his introduction to include the line "the future of comedy", which in a strange way was almost prophetic.