To a young person in 2018, a Steve Martin comedy album from the late-1970s is likely perplexing. Martin’s most riotous bits merely involved him firing off catch phrases—audiences howled with laughter as he blurted lines like “excuuuuuuuuse me!” and “I’m a wild and crazy guy!” His signature prop was a magic shop-style arrow through the head. He would often coax audiences into hysterics simply by shifting into a silly voice or wildly flailing his arms and feet.

In a vacuum, a young person may wonder how any of that is actually funny. But the key to understanding any national phenomenon is to understand its context. While his act was impossibly silly, Martin knew exactly what he was doing. By the mid-1970s, he felt America’s fatigue with the caustic, left-wing political comedy of the Vietnam Era and sensed comedy lovers wanted something new.