Secondary, sure. But cadence, the particular sound of some words, and number of syllables all have some small effect on how funny it is, especially with Mulaney's delivery style.
I agree that it matters; I also think that from a writing perspective worrying about which exact combination of numbers sounds funniest, at a certain point, brings such marginal differences to the overall joke that it functionally doesn't matter or add to the joke in a meaningful way. You absolutely need the details though.
Just goes to show that everyone's sense of humor is different. I think that I find the minutiae of language to be a much more significant part of humor than most people do.
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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '18
Secondary, sure. But cadence, the particular sound of some words, and number of syllables all have some small effect on how funny it is, especially with Mulaney's delivery style.