Stand-up comedians, when they’re completely out of material, resort to two basic topics: the differences between men and women, and the differences between New York and Los Angeles.

Both of these areas are weighed down with clichés and obvious jokes, so even the laziest comedian is bound to come up with a few original observations. With minimal effort, a comic can convince an audience that they’re actually hearing fresh material, when in fact the comic is just — as we say in the trade — phoning it in.